


Assassins of Marmora

by Windfall13



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (more tags to be added), Angst, Assassin Lance, BAMF Lance, BoM lance, Child Abuse, Cuban Lance, Drama, Extremely graphic, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fighting, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Langst, Multi, Platonic Relationships, Violence, clone, descriptive, self harm mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-02-10 23:29:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12922524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windfall13/pseuds/Windfall13
Summary: Unlike his older brothers and sisters, he didn’t kill for the hell of it. When Lance killed, he would kill for justice. But not all the targets he had were criminals.(Set before Season 3, before Keith left and there is Clone Shiro)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> "When I was a young man, I had liberty, but I did not see it. I had time, but I did not know it. And I had love, but I did not feel it. Many decades would pass before I understood the meaning of all three. And now, the twilight of my life, this understanding has passed into contentment." -Ezio's last letter to Sofia (AC Embers)

Manipulation. It was the one thing Lance was good at. Both society and himself could be tricked. As an assassin, this was the most valuable thing to have, the power of manipulation. He couldn’t remember a time he didn’t use it. Even when he was a baby, his cries could get him anything, which made him the perfect assassin. But the downside of him was his bubbly personality. He was loud and assassins were the complete opposite. His family decided to fix that. 

The Macclain family was a long standing line of assassins. They were notorious for their skill in assassinations. His family sent him to the mountains to train with other younger people. It took a while but his bubbly personality started to break. Training was hard, pushing little kids from 5 to 15 to the human limits, maybe even farther. Everyday, Lance watched people getting shot or stabbed by training. Everyday, he watched his friends crumple to the ground. Everyday, he watched little kids around his age die. “Too weak” they said. They said that the weakest ones died earlier. 

Lance could feel the riding crop on his skin. Every time he collapsed or threw up, they forced him to get back up and keep fighting. Or he could quit. Lance especially didn’t want that. He would die trying to quit training. He could remember in his earlier days that he would rarely get dinner because he didn’t do well. Even when he got older, Lance had to steal his dinner and lunch. Not that it helped anyway. He would always get breakfast, but would throw it up during training anyway. Every night, he would cry himself to sleep. Eventually, he felt numb, like an assassin.

There were times when Lance would get bullied because of this. Not just verbal bullying. No...it would be with weapons. It would be bloodied and physical. When this first happened, he wailed for help but it never came. After that, he just let it happen. He let them gut him, cut him and bruise his body. Though Lance soon learned to take a knife with him. When he got older, he fought back hard by himself. He would do it until someone was unconscious or they ran away. He would never run away until either of these things happened, even when he was pinned.

During his time there, he learned every skill. Lance learned how to use every blade, every gun and every weapon imagined. He also learned how to speak every language and learned every culture. Basically, this was his school. He soon learned that he was more of a guns man. Due to his skinny body, he could be mistaken to be an easy person to beat but that was wrong. He used his body to his advantage which made him extremely stealthy. By the time he was 13, he could barely be touched. Lance could remember the first time he was in the ring. He was beaten unconscious while crying. What could he say, he was 6 when that happened.

During breakfast, it was always chatty, but only by the smaller kids. They talked about the events here like it was the weather. “Hey! Did you see Sari kick Hachiko’s ass?”  
“Yeah! I personally think he deserved it. Hachiko beat the shit out of her yesterday!” That was how it was. But the older kids were used to it. They only sat in solemn silence. They knew that by talking nothing would change. They were just broken. No one knew what they were thinking and the smaller kids were kind of creeped out by it. But once Lance joined them when he was 9, he knew what they felt and what they were thinking. Sympathy. They knew that the smaller kids would be no more after some time. The smaller kids would lose their childhood innocence early. They could only give their silent sympathy. 

But there was a one person who cared about him. There was a girl with long blonde hair that reached her feet. She was small but seemed stern and aggressive. Her purple eyes seemed to shimmer in the dark and bring out her beauty mark on the right side of her face along with her small amount of freckles that were barely visible. She was quiet before she came to the organization. But little by little, she started to crack and Lance watched. She didn’t show it through her emotion but the way she acted. She was like Lance when he was younger. She threw up in the day and silently cried in the night. But surprisingly, she kept a straight face and showed no mercy to those as she got older. 

One day, Lance didn’t eat dinner, again. He didn’t want to get caught stealing again, he had enough lashes on his body. There was the sound of a bag shaking coming towards him as he looked up. It was the girl holding a bag of jalapeño bread that seemed to be brand new from the market. “I-I’m sorry little girl, but do you need me to open that?” Lance asked kindly. “No.” The girl said in a half whispered voice. Lance stares at her confused. She went on, “I want you to eat it with me.” The girl stared at him blankly through her purple eyes. Lance stutters, “Listen, you stole that, so you’re allowed to eat it on your own.” 

“I don’t want to.” The girl simply said. Lance then stared at her in surprise. The girl broke the circular bread in half and gave the bigger half to him. He took the piece and she sat down next to him. It took Lance his all to not eat it whole since he hadn’t eaten in 3 days. He was banned from the cafeteria for a week since he engaged in combat with another man. Well, as said before, the man was Hachiko and he was picking on women like the weakling he was. Needless to say, Hachiko was already punished, having been given an extended time in this “prison”. Now he’ll graduate when he’s 15.

“Why did you do this?” Lance asked the girl. The girl gives him a stern look, “Back when I was living in an orphanage, the older kids had to take care of the younger kids. Not to mention you did what you had to do, stand up for the younger kids. That creep deserved it, not you. After all, we’re a team, right?” Lance sighs softly with a humorless chuckle, “I’m sorry but we’re assassins. We’re not a team. We’re...selfish people.” The girl shrugs, “So? That doesn’t stop me from giving.” For once in 7 years, Lance grins. It was weird to smile, like it was a foreign concept. 

“Anyway, what’s your name little girl?” Lance asks. The girl sighs, “My name is Kazuko Toshihiro.” Lance blinks, “That’s a Japanese boy’s name.” Kazuko sighs again,” Yeah but that’s what my birth parent’s named me. Probably in hopes of me being a boy, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m 8 years old.” Lance introduces himself as well, “I’m Lance Mcclain. I’m 12 years old.” Kazuko looked shocked, “Wait...Mcclain? As in the Mcclain family line? But those people...are extremely skilled.” Lance chuckles, “Yeah. My family sent me off to go train with little hope for me to become one due to my bubbly attitude.” 

Kazuko continued to ask questions, “You were...bubbly?” That’s when Lance stared off in thought. It seemed like years since he was reminded of his old self. And it was 7 years since he last smiled until now. Happy Lance seemed like a foreign concept to him-“I’m sorry to intrude. I mean to.” Kazuko apologized, glaring at her worn down shoes. Lance smiled back on return, “No...it’s fine. I’ve never had another person to talk to. This feels...nice, I guess.”

Twice every week Kazuko would come to visit him with food. Lance never asked but he was damn grateful though. “You’re one year away from graduating, are you nervous?” Kazuko asks one day. Lance gulps. He never thought he could be nervous, but he ended up reflecting back during his previous years of pain and mental torture but he was finally an assassin after all that hard work. “Now that I think about it.” Lance said after moment of silence, “I...kind of am. After so damn long, I finally get to see daylight. I...nervous.” Kazuko giggles cutely for the first time, “Yeah, you’re skipping over your english.” Lance ruffles her hair, “Don’t worry about me. You just concentrate on getting through this training, Shiho!”

Shiho stares at her piece of food in hand and blushes, “Don’t give me an odd nickname.”

*March 1, 2135: Assassin’s Graduate Day*

Lance tugged at his collar once again, nervous as hell as loud chatter filled the room. The little kids ages 5-9 filled the left side of the room, some having to stand on the side. The older kids aged 10-14 barely filled all the chairs, all of them sitting quietly, patiently and well dressed, unlike the smaller kids who were dressed in their black, dirty jumpsuits. Lance took the time to count them all. It was a medium sized organization; there were 50 staff members(headmaster included), 401 little kids and 157 older kids. In total, there were 608 people, which didn’t help his anxiety at all. 

The suit he was wearing was much more classier. It was a red tux with red dress pants, along with a red and black striped tie. The only other thing that was black were his shiny shoes. His rough hair was cut a little too short, especially near the bangs. The girls instead wore short pink, velvet like dresses with small straps. They each wore glittery pink heels that they all walked awkwardly in. As Lance fidgeted, Shiho comes in. Her hair was cut from down to her legs to half way to her back. Half her hair was tied up with a red bow with the bottom just lying free. Red laced, knee high boots thudded on the floor. The red plaid skirt ended at her knees and her white button up fit her perfectly. Her pale skin seemed to brighten even more on the day she wore this.

“You still nervous?” Shiho asks. Lance chokes, “I-I’m fine! Perfectly fine! I-It’s going to be fine!” Shiho smirks, “Fine.” She hands him a water bottle, “Can you open this bottle for me?” Lance doesn’t even question it as his trembling hand touches the cap. He couldn’t open it. In fact, his hands were so trembly that the bottle couldn’t even hold still. Shiho sighs, “You’re going to be fine.” She takes the bottle away from him and hands him a glass cup instead. That didn’t help at all. Water splashed everywhere on the floor and end table he was sitting at. “Th-thanks! You’re a-awesome, Shiho! Everything’s fine, I swear.” Lance says with an unconvincing smile. His grips tightens and the glass ends up breaking in his hand, leaving a gash as his smile turned into a nervous one. Shiho sighs, “Oh boy.”

*Time skip*

There was a tradition at each yearly graduation. You’re supposed to say this vow, “I, your name, will vow my life to this organization and follow every order and hit list that is given from this organization. I understand the consequences for lying and quitting as an assassin. I will complete every job to its full entirety and use every resource necessary to complete the job. I shall never never betray this organization’s trust for as long as I am an abled person. Créeme.” After that, you are supposed to kill one person with a simple pistol. The person is on their knees and are guilty of “treason”. They have lied about killing their past targets or have killed “innocents”. After this, you are to take the academy blade from the headmaster, shake his hand and keep the blade for life.

“Lance Mcclain.” His name was finally after the name Abiola Mawusi, called by the headmaster. There was a complete silence across the entire audience as they waited for his entrance. Lance stares shocked at the headmaster and then to Shiho. She nods. Lance looks ahead and gulps. His first step echoes for what seemed like forever and the next one after that and then the next one after that. Finally, he reached the center of the stage and faces the audience. Putting his fist to his chest so that his thumb is outward, he starts, “I, Lance Mcclain, will vow my life to this organization and follow every order and hit list that is given from this organization. I understand the consequences for lying and quitting as an assassin. I will complete every job to its full entirety and use every resource necessary to complete the job. I shall never never betray this organization’s trust for as long as I am an abled person. Créeme.”

He sighs in relief as the audience claps. The older kids actually started cheering for him, the smaller kids staring in confusion. Lance wipes a tear away as a woman with a hemp bag is dragged towards him. She tries to struggle from the guard’s grip but they yank her back. She’s thrown on the ground and one of the guards ripped the hemp bag off her head. That moment seemed to go in slow motion but happened so fast at the same time. But Lance should’ve known...her caramel colored skin...he should’ve known...that her mother’s soft personality would’ve landed her here.

“Mamá?” Lance stared in horror. She shook her messy brown hair out of her face returned his stare with the exact same feeling, “L-Lance! My baby! Mi bebé! Please! You’re here to help, right? Lance, help me!” The young cuban boy could only stand still as he was handed the pistol with a simple command, “Kill her.” Lance’s breath hitched. “Mi bebé! Please! Those people were innocent! They deserved to live! Oh, mi bebé, just let me live!” His mother wailed through her tears. Lance felt nothing. Time stood still; the extended hand patiently waited there. “Those people deserved to live”? But she promised her life to his organization and he was going to do the same. 

‘She’s a traitor,’ Lance thought, ‘She deserves to die. She has no right to be alive. Traitors are to be killed!’ With that final thought, Lance hastily took the gun from the guard’s hand and immediately aimed the barrel onto his mother’s forehead. His mother screeches reach a higher pitch, “Mi bebé! Mi bebé! Please! I’m not a traitor. Those people deserved to live! Please! The organization is lying to you! They’re killing assassins! They’re killing kids-“  
“I know mom.” Lance said blankly, staring right into her eyes, “I’ve seen it everyday. You should’ve thought of that before sending me here.”  
“You’re my hijo! Lance! Lance! LAAAAAAAAA-“ 

A gunshot sounded in the building as her heart-wrenching shrieks came to an abrupt stop. His mother’s battered body crumbled to the ground with a hard thud, blood flowing freely from her head like a waterfall. Lance felt nothing still but his hand that was once stiff was now shaking like an earthquake. He felt nothing as the audience applauded. He felt nothing as he made his way to the headmaster who was carrying the knife. But...he then felt euphoric as he took the knife in his grip. The crowd was now an entire zoo. There were loud screams and proud whistling clashing with aggressive clapping. Shiho let her tears fall freely as she saw her friend stand proudly, “Lance...I hope to see you one day after this day. Maybe one day...”

Lance felt tears dripping down his face as he looked into the headmaster’s eyes and, with a smile, shook his hand. Were they happy tears? Angry tears? Sad tears? It didn’t matter. He was done with this place. All his hard work over the years had finally paid off. He was finally an assassin. Lance just wanted himself to feel happy for the time being after so many years.

*4 Years later*

Lance held a red ribbon close to his chest. He smiled fondly at the memories back on Earth. Sure not all of them were good but there were at least a few good memories that kept him going. Lance chuckles to himself, “Don’t worry, Shiho. I’m coming home for your Graduation.” He starts to think to himself again. It’s funny, really. How he killed his mother when she was a traitor when he started doing the same. He would leave innocent targets alone. 

Unlike his older brothers and sisters, he didn’t kill for the hell of it. When Lance killed, he would kill for justice. But not all the targets he had were criminals. That was why he faked the death of some targets. Back on Earth, his organization caught wind of it when the Kerberos mission went off without a hitch. Thankfully, Lance was supposed to stay at the Garrison for spy work, so he was safe. Now that he was thinking about it, he was safer in space than on Earth. 

With that, he closes his eyes into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my second contribution to the fandom and I really hope you guys will stick with for the entire series while you guys enjoy this. I’ve been think of something to do for Lance ever since I’ve been reading depressed Lance stuff and once I found this idea, I decided to run with it:https://biggeek2351.tumblr.com/post/167182766369/voltron-headcanon-the-mcclain-family-has-gone-back Anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	2. The Red Ribbon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance smiled his biggest smile and this time in 4 years, it wasn’t forced, “(Hello Papá. I am home.)”

Lance wakes up from his peaceful sleep on the day before Graduation. ‘Wow. I’ve never had some good sleep until now.’ He thought as he stretched his body. Bones cracked as he stretched his right arm and spine, yet he yawned contently. Lance then took off his shirt and went to the bathroom, the red ribbon forgotten on his bed. He looked into the large mirror and frowned at the body covered in large white scars. Here he was bragging about having perfect skin yet behind the arrogance, he was forced to put on a camouflage kit and this odd skin colored brace Shiho gave to him before he left:

*Flashback*

“Shiho, what is this?” Lance said after fidgeting with it for five minutes. Shiho sighs, “You mean you don’t know? This is a brace. A half body one more like it. It’s new here and it’s to cover the scars on your back and front of your body. I don’t know about your arms though...” Lance hugs her anyway, “Thank you, Shiho. You didn’t have to.” She smirks her rarest smirk as she hugged back, “I know that but I needed to because you’re an idiot.” Lance playfully punches her arm, “Hey, I know you’ll miss me.” Shiho sighs once again, this one more depressed, “Yeah. But you will be back for my graduation, right?” 

Lance lets out a boisterous laugh, “Uh hell yeah?! Imma be the loudest one there! Imma be like, ‘Hell yeah! That’s my girl!’” Shiho looked at him annoyed, “The idiot’s at it again.” Lance rubs her back, “Shiho, you know I’ll miss you. I’ll come back. I promise.” Shiho sniffles, “Y-Yeah. I know you will. But I need you to do something for me.” Shiho pulls the red ribbon out of her hair and gives it to him, “Red means passion and...I want you to keep that passion throughout your life so...please keep this.” Lance smiles, “Yeah...I will.” He ties the ribbon around his academic blade. Then, his name was called, “Lance Mcclain. we're ready to escort you. You’re father is out front.” 

Lance looks at her sadly, “Well...I guess this is good bye.” Shiho just lets out a shuddered sigh this time, “Hey. I’ll see you in four year so don’t say goodbye, you baby.” Lance chuckles, “Hey, you’re about to break too.” That’s when Shiho lets her tears out, “Lance! I can’t! I fucking can’t, okay!? We spent so long together! You’re my only friend here!” Lance had never seen her cry so loudly, “Wh-wha?!” The young girl continued to sob, “I’ve...never been so comfortable around anyone before.”  
“Shiho!”  
“And I’ve never...had a friend before. I’ve never met someone as stubborn before.”  
“Shiho! What are you-“  
“And I’ve never had a brother before! Hell! I’ve never had the nickname ‘Shiho’ before!”  
“Shiho!”  
“And I’ve never...fallen for someone before...”

Lance was shocked in silence before he gave a shaky smile, “Hey. I’m...still leaving no matter what anyone says, but at least send me off with a smile, okay? Stay strong for me, Shiho. You have only 4 years left. Stay strong for me, Shiho.” Shiho stopped crying but she didn’t look any better. Snot ran down to her mouth and her tears messed up her face.

Lance gets up and starts to make his way out of the building he spent 10 years in. Lance lets out a choked sob as he got closer to the outside world. He could hear Shiho sniffle, keeping a strong face for him. The outer guards slowly closed the door as Lance took one step outside. As they did though, Lance turned around and gave her his last real smile and then the doors closed with a heavy echo.

*Flashback end*

Now dressed and ready, Lance stared at the red ribbon on his bed through his blurred vision. He wipes his nose with his sleeve like a child and made his way to the door, but not without his ribbon. As he made his way to the dining area, he tried tying on the ribbon to his blade. That silk had a habit of falling off but he thankfully kept it in his room. “It’s probably getting close to her Graduation.” He murmurs. No one else knows this but he had a few calendars of each year until 2140. He’s been keeping track of days on earth by crossing out each day that he knew had passed.

It was 3 days before Shiho’s Graduation, and he wasn’t going to break a promise. He’ll beg Allura to go back to Earth, even if they say no, he’ll travel by escape pod or lion. He wasn’t going to let her down. Chatter and loud laughter came from the dining room, which heavily reminded him of his own Graduation. It honestly scared him...wait. When did he ever think of them like this? What the hell? Oh well, he had these thoughts before. It’s pretty common; he’ll probably get over it.

He quietly entered the room deep in thought, which was different from his loud entrances. Not they seemed to care; they were telling crappy space jokes. Lance didn’t even try to eat, fingering the blade and ribbon that heavily kept reminding him of Shiho and her Graduation. What if they do say no? Would he even be close enough to Earth to travel by pod? Even so, he had to try. For his little Shiho. “And I’ve never...fallen for someone before...” Lance remembered her last broken words before he left and that heart broken face she had. But she had a habit of doing what she was told so she kept a brave face. Lance could’ve never been any prouder.

“Lance! Hey man! You okay?” Hunk yelled at him. Lance stared at him blankly, then remembered that he was actually not in his organization but instead was on the castle, safe. “O-Oh! Yeah! I’m fine! Don’t mind me!” Lance finally said. Allura looked worried, “If you ever need anyone to talk to, I’m here-“  
“Are you sure you’re still not secretly asking me out on a date?”  
Allura stared at him shocked before her expression turned into one of annoyance, she turning away from him. The team groans:  
“Yep...he’s fine.”  
“Same old Lance.”  
“It’s amazing how an idiot can change.”  
“Unbelievable.”  
Lance tries to keep the smile until they went back to talking. His face drops and he turns his attention back to his blade in hand, “I’m coming, Shiho. Trust me.” He was so engulfed with anxiety that he didn’t notice the red paladin studying him with concern.

*A few minutes later*

Lance paced around in the control room as everyone watches him. “Is...he okay?” Pidge asks. Shiro could only stare in concern like Keith, “To be honest, Pidge, I really don’t know.” Allura was getting tired of it though, “Lance!” Lance yelps, ”Yes, Allura?!”  
“What is going on? You’ve been pacing back and forth for 5 minutes!”  
“I was?”  
Lance then sighs the most depressing sigh they’ve ever heard. Lance walked up to her and then looked her straight in the eyes, like he was preparing for something. Allura was both creeped out and annoyed, “Lance, if you’re asking me out, it’s a no-“

“I have to go back to Earth.”  
Everyone made a surprised noise, “What?!” Lance stood his ground, “I have to go back. There’s someone waiting for me.” There was an odd silence before Allura declined, or at least was close to declining, “I’m sorry but we can’t. Just in case something happens-“  
Lance then threw himself onto the ground on his knees, looking up at her. Allura squeals in surprise as everyone else could only gasp and stare. Lance’s hands were in a fist and shaking, holding something, “Please! I can only beg at this point.”

Everyone stared at the performance that was going on there. Lance had never acted this way before. His voice sounded close to tears, “Please, Allura! My friend...no! My sister is graduating! This is very important to me. I-I promised her when I left! I was going to attend her Graduation as I promised. It isn’t fair to her. Please! Just...please.” Lance stared up at a shocked Allura with his once again blurry eyes and whispered, “Please.” 

Allura didn’t know what to do. The pose he was in was the one Alteans used to propose to someone. Allura could only feel creeped out again before caving in, “Fine! Fine! Just...don’t do that pose again.” Lance felt shock and excitement as she accepted his request. He got up and hugged her, “Thank you so much!” and then ran out of the control room. Everyone stood still, their mouths agape at Lance’s outburst. Allura had a dreary face before she announced, “Well Paladins. We’re going back to Earth at Lance’s request. I’m doing this because I don’t want to go through that again.”

Lance was happily skipping around through the hallways, cheering loudly, “Don’t worry, Shiho! I’m coming for you!”  
“Shiro?” Keith scares him. Lance squeaks before glaring at him, “No! It’s Shiho! And she’s the person who’s graduating.” Keith raises an eyebrow, “Now that I think about it...Lance, you’ve never told us about your past.” Lance’s breath hitched, “O-Of course I did. I described the beaches and trees and grass! Not to mention that I had a big family.” Keith rolls his eyes, “Right. That’s not what I meant. We’re missing the details...like events that happened in your life.” 

Lance narrows his eyes, “What’s it matter to you, mullet? It’s not like you had a family to begin with.” That was a low blow and Lance knew it, but the words came out on their own before he could process them. Keith looked ready to punch him, yet he instead says this, “Well at least you had a mom!” Those words. Lance doesn’t know if he mentioned mom by coincidence but he heard them. Lance stared off into space(HA!)in horror as he recalled his memories:  
“You’re my hijo! Lance! Lance! LAAAAAAAAA-“

“Mamá?” Lance asked to no one as he clutched his heart.  
Keith now looked worried, “L-Lance?” Lance couldn’t say anything as he ran away to his room. He didn’t stop when Keith called his name and slammed the door of his room behind him. Lance slammed his back against his door as his feet struggled to keep his weight. He clutched his chest tighter and slowly sits down. He chokes on a broken sob with his forgotten blade in his pocket. He almost forgot. He killed his own mom. 

*Time skip again cause I’m fucking lazy*

After a couple wormhole jumps, they reached Earth a few hours later. Lance observed it in the front of the control room. He felt a hand on his shoulder and his reflexes kicked in. Lance yanked the hand over his shoulder and Keith lands on the ground. Lance glared at him, more surprised than angry, “Keith? What the hell, man. Don’t do that!” Keith was in shock, his back burning from such treatment, “I-I was just coming to apologize to you about today.” Lance helps the poor man up.

“Can you at least tell me what happened to your mother?” Keith pushes. Not wanting to argue, Lance just answered, “She died when I was 15. Let’s just leave it at that.” Keith nods, “Yeah. I’m guessing you’re to be meeting your sister...’Shiho’?” Lance huffs out a laugh, “She’s not even my real sister. But we decided to become siblings since she’s never has a family before.”

*Flashback*

“What were you like before you came here?” Lance asks. Shiho sighs her signature sigh, “Well..like I said before, the older kids had to take care of the younger ones back in the orphanage. So I took extra care of the younger ones which ended up with kids liking me. Despite the fact that I hate them, I can’t help but worry about them sometimes. It was like I was the mother that they never had. But it’s not like I exactly like them back.” Lance laughs, “Yeah. At first glance, you don’t seem to be a person who’d be good kids.” Shiho glares, “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance pats her on the back with another boisterous, short laugh, “Hey. Don’t take it seriously. Brothers tease their sisters, right?” Shiho stares at him shocked and blushing.

*Flashback end*

“Lance? You still okay there? You’ve staring for the past five minutes.” Keith asked, waving his hand in Lance’s face. This was the wrong thing to do; Lance then proceeds to twist Keith’s arm behind his back. Keith yelps, “Okay! Okay! Let go!” Lance scolds him, “I told you not to do that.” He lets Keith go. Keith rubs his shoulder, “Now I’m curious to see what life you had.” Lance only says this, “You’ll see.” Keith had more questions than answers at that point but it was useless to push so he left the Cuban boy alone. 

They slowly entered Earth’s atmosphere. To Lance, it felt like hours before he saw the land he called home. They finally reached the land and they slowly landed near the edge of the large woodland between where he trained and where his family lived. Or so he hoped was still there, he thought. Lance cringed at the thought of a blade slicing his arm or a bullet penetrating his chest as he thought about training. “Lance. We’re here.” Shiro called. Lance sighs before putting on his façade again, “Let’s get this shit show on the road!”  
“Language.”

It wasn’t a far walk to his family’s house but to his training camp was a different story though. It would probably take at least a couple hours, though his family was less than 10 minutes away, maybe 30 if he was walking. Allura and Coran both volunteered to stay near the castle until tomorrow. They had to know if they were safe before they left it alone. Lance was farther ahead of the group, knowing his way there. The rest of the team, for some reason, looked tired by the time they reached an old town. Lance’s eyes adjusted to understand what they were seeing before he laughs gleefully. He started to run full speed into the town and looked for the old yet colorful looking house. “We’ll...stay behind. You*huff*go ahead!” Hunk looked ready to collapse. The rest of the team was better off but still looked tired. 

Lance’s running slowed to a messy stop once he found his house. He stared at it was a happy, tearful smile. He didn’t give it second thought as he pushed the door bell. ‘Oh god. What if they don’t want me? What if...they forgot about me? What if they hate me?’ Lance’s anxiety started to kick in like a punch in the gut. There were loud thudding footsteps upstairs, a dog barking and then getting dragged away. 

Then it was proceeded with loud shouting in spanish, the voices thick with accents:  
“(Papá? Who’s at the door?)” That was one of his youngest sisters.  
“(Hush, Zamora! Lock that damn dog in your room!)” That gruff and low voice was his father’s.  
“(Maybe that’s Luis’ girlfriend.)” There was the old shaky voice of his grandmother.  
“(Hush Mamá.)” His father groaned and the door flies open.

Lance stared and his father stared back. His father’s scarred and wrinkly face only brought happiness at that point. His father’s caramel skin reminded him of someone but Lance was too mesmerized to remember who. Those old stained, ripped jeans and old orange plaid shirt reminded Lance that his father was wearing the last clothes Lance saw before he left. His father’s rough, dark brown hair was brushed back along with his dark stubbled jaw. Yep, he still looked the same. Both men looked as if they were about to bawl. “Lance?” His father stood there. 

Lance smiled his biggest smile and this time in 4 years, it wasn’t forced, “(Hello Papá. I am home.)”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m now preparing the next chapter. A lot will be happening since it’s large family. But anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	3. Family Feast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “(Papá. I have a question.)”  
>  Said man smiles without knowing, “(Sure son!)”   
> “(Do you hate me?)”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ()=in Spanish  
> No parenthesis=In English

“(Hahahahahaha! You see this! My boy’s back!)” His father happily shouts a second time, rubbing his fist into Lance’s head. There were pounding footsteps along with the sound of what seemed like keys until a young girl appeared at the foot of the stairs. A young thirteen-year-old girl appeared wearing a pink shirt with frills on the bottom of it along with some type of black, smooth yoga pants. She wore cheap looking flip flops and had a large pink bow in the side of her hair. Her brown hair was down and her smooth skin was a tone darker than her father’s. The last time Lance had seen her sister was when she was nine. She looked way different. But that’s hormones do to you.

She stared at him shyly before she started to smile. Lance smiled as well as he wrestled out of the arms of his father. 

“(Zamora! I hope you’ve been good while I was gone!)” Lance says as he squeezes her in his arms. 

Zamora giggles, “(You’re squeezing too hard, Lance! And of course I was good! I was good so you would come back sooner.)” 

Lance smiled at this, “(Thank you.)” 

His father coughs, “(Nonononononono. She has been a nightmare. But that’s what hormones do.)”

Zamora looked embarrassed at her father, “(Papá!)”

Lance snorts and then wanders into the living room where all eyes were on him again. 

His older sister, Karmen, sat on a single chair with her assassin suit on. Her long black hair was tied in a pony tail and her sharp brown eyes stared him down. His older brother, Oro, was in one as well. His jet black hair was slicked back like his father’s but it had gel in it instead. His face was gentle, almost handsome if it weren’t for his cut eyebrow and his eyes had a calm demeanor. In his arms, he held a baby who was silently sucking his thumb. There were two twins on the floor playing cars and trains. Romeo and Rosa both had equally long hair but Romeo’s had an amazing cow’s tail while Rosa’s had two ponytails. Finally, his grandmother looked through her tiny glasses with two sticks in each hand with yarn tied to it. Lance usually calls her Grandmother.

Grandmother waddles to Lance, “(Oh my little boy has come home! Welcome home, my strong boy. Oh how I have missed you.)” 

She gives him an awkward kiss on the cheek and Lance nervously chuckles, “(I’ve missed you too, Grandmother.)”

It wasn’t often that Karmen got excited but these were one of the exciting moments. Her boots stopped loudly on the floor as she ran into her brother’s arms. 

“(Oh my god. Lance! I thought you died! That’s what the news said. They said you died. Fuck. I never knew!)” Karmen hugs him tighter. The shorter sibling hugged back, “(Hey, I’m alive and I’m fine. You have nothing to worry about.)” 

Karmen lets go and she’s her old self again. She punches his arm, “(Don’t you ever do that again, Lance!)”

Lance laughs, “(Okay! I won’t!)” Oro’s boots calmly made their way towards the both of them. He hands Karmen the baby and there was a silence before he hugs Lance as well, “(Oh brother. I thought I lost you. I don’t know what would happen if it were all true. But I knew it. You were alive. You’re an assassin. No one can take you down.)” 

Lance pats his back, “(You’re such an emotional person. Don’t worry. It’s fine. It’s all fine. I’m fine.” 

The two twins hid behind Grandmother. Lance got on one knee, “(Hey! I’m your older brother. You both have grown big like Zamora!)” 

They both stare at him blankly before Romeo asked in a scratchy voice, “(Karmen says you’re badass and that you were the best assassin in the family. Is that true?)” 

Karmen took her attention off the baby immediately. Lance cracks up as Karmen’s jaw dropped, (“Y-You’re not supposed to say that! It’s an adult word! And I never meant that!)” 

Both Oro and Lance was dying on the floor as the twins looked confused.

“(Lance! Are these friends of yours?)” His father calls from the door. Lance gets up and dusts himself off. He heard Keith’s annoyed voice, “Lance! I don’t know what he’s saying but it’s not true!” 

Lance face palms and chuckles, “(They...don’t know too much Spanish.)” 

Karmen looked at him annoyed as well, “(Clearly.)” 

More footsteps walked along the wood floorboards and then there was an awkward stare off in the living room. 

“Well?” Keith asked, “You gonna introduce them or can we call them ‘thing 1’ and ‘thing 2’.” 

Lance sticks out his tongue before he points to each of them, “Oro, Zamora, my father, Romeo, Rosa, Grandmother, and Karmen the bitch.”

Karmen glares at him before she retaliates, “Tough words from a bastard who disappeared for about 12 years in total.” 

Lance clutches his heart in a fake hurt way, “Sister! I trusted you!” 

His father now calls from the kitchen(most likely lighting a cigar up), “(Ay. These kids still argue to this day.)”

Lance looked at the baby in Karmen’s hands, “(I’ve never see her before.)” 

Karmen rolls her eyes, “(It’s a him. He’s...Papá’s girlfriend’s son. His name is name is Ivan.)”

“(Huh? A Russian name?)”

“(She came from Russia, but she was born in America.)” 

Shiro seemed to take extra interest in Ivan, “Um...if I may?”

Karmen looks to the Japanese man before she freezes. Her face turns red, ‘Oh! He has the muscles of a bull!’ 

Lance yells at her, “Karmen!”

Said woman blinks before she shyly hands over the baby to Shiro. Lance smirks as Shiro plays with the him, “Are you thinking of fatherhood, Shiro?” 

Shiro stutters as the rest of the team hide their laughter, “N-No! I just-“

Grandmother cuts in, “(Oh what a nice group of friends you have! Is the red one your boyfriend?)” 

Lance puts his face in his hands as his family snickers, “(Grandmother!)” 

Keith looked nervous, “What did she say?!” Lance blushes, “Um...she said I have a nice group of friends!” 

Keith narrows his eyes, “Why do I feel like you’re being extremely broad on purpose?” 

Grandmother goes on, “(Oh I shall make a grand feast!)” 

Lance’s father looked shocked at his mother(also scared the shit out of Lance), “(Mamá! You’ve never even cooked for years!)” 

Careful not to wake Ivan up, Shiro then ordered, “Lance! Translate!” 

Lance stutters from something so sudden, “Sh-She said that she’ll prepare a large feast for us.” 

Hunk, who was as silent as Pidge, suddenly jumped at the offer, “I can help!” and made his way towards the kitchen. Grandmother sighs, “(Ah. I remember when you were like that before you left, Lance.)” 

An awkward silence hung in the air after Grandmother left. The team didn’t understand. “Lance. Did she say something wrong?” Pidge asks, concerned for her friend. 

Lance lets out a shaky sigh and Karmen puts a hand on his shoulder. 

“(Lance.)” She says, “(We know.)” 

That’s when the dam broke and Lance started to sob. All his regret, anger, depression and anxiety came out in one huge outburst. With a grim look on her face, Karmen tells Oro, “(Take him my room. God knows what’ll happen if we take him to his old room.)” 

Keith reached out, “Wait! What happened?” 

Karmen sighs before disappearing into the upstairs, “He’ll be fine in less an hour.” 

Keith grit his teeth and made a fist, “Damn this language barrier.” 

He feels a tug at his sleeve. He looks down to see Zamora. “I know some English. I could probably translate it. I think Grandmother said, ‘I remember you were like that before Lance left.’ And then Karmen said, ‘Lance, we know.’”

Despite some of the broken english, Keith was able to piece it together. 

“Well, I guess Lance would cry about leaving his family.” Keith said. There was a another cry and their attention was directed to the twins. Romeo hit Rosa with a broken plastic tire and he was giggling. Rosa cries noisily. Pidge panicked and chased Romeo, “Hey! Put that down! That’s not nice!” 

Shiro shrugs. “I guess I’ll stay down here and help her. Besides, Ivan is sleeping peacefully.” 

Keith gave a sympathetic smile before there was another sharp tug at his sleeve. Zamora smiles innocently before dragging him upstairs, “Come! You’re Lance’s boyfriend, right? I can show some cool things!” 

Keith blushes, “L-Lance is not my boyfriend!”

Lance’s father sighs as he goes onto the porch for a smoke. He sat down on his mother’s creaky wooden chair and inhaled grandly before releasing the toxin into the air. He smiled to the now orange and blue sky, “My son is home.”

Lance was turned away from Karmen from her bed. She and Oro silently sat there until his sobs died down. 

“(How long),” He asked, “(Did you know about Mamá?)” 

Karmen looked away, “(We...were there. We were waiting for you in the car that evening, remember? We were there the whole time.)” 

Lance shot up and his blue eyes flared red, “(Why the fuck did you not tell me?!)” 

Karmen just calmly replied, “(We didn’t want to hurt you anymore than the organization did that day.)” 

Lance sighed, “(Does...Papá hate me?)” 

Oro smiles and pats his head, “(Papá never hated you, even years after that. He knew you had to in order to graduate. Mamá was a traitor after all.)” 

Lance’s glare returned, “(If he hated her as a traitor, then why did he keep me when he was the first to find out?)”

Karmen sighs, “(Well, while you were gone, they...started to drift apart. Soon, things turned tense until that tension popped. Papá was taking job after job and Mamá was trying to tell him that it’s unhealthy. One day, he tried to choke her to death. I was lucky I came home in time. Eventually, Mamá just...disappeared. Actually, she faked her death so people say it’s because of suicide. Papá then wanted to keep you safe so you wouldn’t go through the same.)” 

Lance wipes his tears, “(I just...still can’t believe it. I killed her.)” 

Karmen looked ready to cry herself. She whispered, “(Yeah. I know.)” 

Oro sighed, running his fingers through his hair, “(This is stressful. We should be celebrating!” 

Karmen’s expression changes quick to happiness, “(Hell yeah we should. Why the fuck are we moping around?)” 

Lance sniffles before adding, “(Yeah! I’m home so the party should’ve been starting an hour ago!)” 

Karmen snorts, “(We would’ve but you were busy being a bitch.)” 

Instead of getting upset, Lance felt glad to be teased again by her instead of them. He felt a warm feeling in his heart. Lance lets out a short laugh, “(That’s coming from someone who cried over the dog grabbing your slice of pizza.)” 

Oro chokes on a laugh while Karmen pouts, “(That was my pizza though! Besides, I was four! I’m surprised you remembered that!)”

 

“(I didn’t. Oro told me the whole story.)”

Karmen glares at Oro, “(Oro!)” 

Karmen started chasing Oro with her dagger, “(You little shit! I’m gonna drag this out for as long as I can!)” 

Oro faked a terrified look, “(But you can’t kill an innocent!)” 

Lance makes a phone with his hand, “(Hello? Lance McClain here. I have an order for you. Kill the one that is called Oro McClain. Please make sure to torture him thoroughly!)” 

Karmen looked livid now, “(You heard my client.)” 

Oro put the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically, “Ooooohhhh was thou brotherhood forbidden? Why has ye yet betrayed thy trust?” 

Lance sneers, “(That wasn’t even good.)”

Loud footsteps followed along the upper floor and the past Zamora’s room, where Keith was. He was sitting on her bed petting some type of fluffy black dog. The dog’s large body lied there, sleeping on Keith’s lap. Zamora had been showing Keith her gymnastics trophies and was talking about her career. 

“Someday, I’ll be part of the Olympics!” She said, showing her best golden trophy to him, “I heard that Lance was also pretty stealthy like me!” 

Keith nods and thinks back to that one scene, “So I’ve...seen. You have an amazing life ahead of you but could you tell me more about Lance?”

Zamora stared off confused, “Hmmmmm...well Lance was gone before I was even born. One day, my family was talking about some type of Graduation. I asked who were they talking about. They only said that I had another older brother that was training.” 

Keith frowned at this, “For what?” 

Zamora looks at him sadly, “If only I knew. But that’s all they said. They told me I would get smacked if I were to ask anymore about it.” 

Keith pushed for answers, “Did he ever come back?”

Zamora nods and smiles fondly, “I could remember when he came back. I was about 9 when I first saw my brother. He was so happy to see me! And I was too.” 

Zamora then looks to the ground, “But his face. Oh god. He was bruised on his neck and there was a scar across his forehead. I’m sorry for my French but he looked like crap!”

Keith’s frown deepened, “But...his face is clear now.” 

Zamora shrugs, “I personally think it’s make-up. He’s pretty good at it. Sometimes he’d help me with it too.” 

Keith sighed, ‘Did he lie about how his life wasn’t interesting?’ 

Zamora fiddled with her hair, “And his happiness. It all seemed forced. I really don’t know why. All I know was that my family was complaining about how his carefree attitude would’ve gotten him killed. So it’s like...he’s trying to act like himself before camp. Besides, he did leave when he was five, I think.” 

Keith clutched the bedsheets, “But he seemed so happy.” 

Zamora sighs, “Yeah. I thought so too.”

Then, she suddenly had an epiphany, “Actually, now that I think about it, did something happen during that camp? According to my family, he was very happy, but now he seems numb.” 

Keith growled, “I don’t know but I think I’m gonna find out tomorrow.” 

Zamora nods, “Yeah. Lance had a friend, at least that’s what he said to Oro. I guess he came back for the Graduation? Please find out. I want to know.” 

Keith patted the dog, “I just...can’t believe he’s lying to us. Our whole friendship was a lie.” 

Hunk’s voice bellowed from below, “Food is ready!” 

Zamora gives a sympathetic smile this time, “I’m sorry.” 

There was a huge feast, like Grandmother said. There was mashed potatoes, crab, shrimp, turkey, macaroni, burgers, ribs, peas, fries, pie, cake and some other things. There was also wine, beer and soda. The paladins jaws dropped at the display(except for Hunk since he was preparing it). Grandmother gives a grand smile, “(I’ve still got it!)” 

Lance and his father looked ready to tackle the table. The twins, who were in Pidge’s arms, jumped out and ran under the table to two chairs. Karmen smiles at Oro as he sat down. Grandmother stops the twins though once she saw them, “(No. You know the rules. The kids are to sit in the living room during feasts.)” 

The twins frowned. Romeo says, “(But we never had a feast before.)” 

Grandmother laughs, “(Well, we’re having one now. What about that green girl? I think Hunk said she was Pidge. She is to sit with the kids as well.)” 

Pidge perks up, “She said my name! I heard my name. What did she say?!” 

Zamora translates instead, since Lance was busy drooling, “Grandmother says, ‘Pidge sits with the kids in the living room.” 

Pidge groans, “Ugh!!!” 

Grandmother then tells Karmen, “(Can you please take the baby to his room, Karmen?)” 

Karmen gulps and nods. Without looking Shiro in the eyes, she asks, “M-May I?” 

Shiro stares at her confused, but gives the still sleeping Ivan to her.

Meanwhile, Zamora silently crept behind Grandmother’s back to sneak into a chair, but Grandmother’s quick eyes caught her, “(Nuh uh! You go to the living room with your siblings this instant! You can join when you are 15.)” 

Zamora groans loudly and dragged her feet out of the kitchen, along with Pidge who had the exact same attitude, Pidge murmuring with something along the lines of, “Stupid” and “I’m 16.” The twins happily trudged along, happy to finally get their own table. Grandmother check on the two men(*boys*), who were now drooling waterfalls. Grandmother hit both of their lower jaws, “(Luis! You should know better! Lance! That is unacceptable! Be a gentleman. Both of you!)” 

Lance and his father rubbed their jaws as Hunk appeared and sat down with an apron still on, “Come on guys! You’re not just gonna stand there, right?” 

Everyone sat in their respective chairs. “What about the children?” Shiro asked. Lance translated for Grandmother. She laughs and Lance translates the following to English, “(Back when we had feasts, the children ate last after the adults were done. This is to teach them patience and self-discipline!)” 

Karmen came back in and sat right next to Shiro. Once she realized this, she thought, ‘Oh fuck me! I’m sitting next to my crush?!’

Lance poked at her from across the table, “Karmen? Oh. I see what’s going on. Karmen, you sly dog.” 

Shiro looked confused while Karmen glares at him with fiery eyes, ”Shut up!” 

Lance’s father rubs his face, “Aye. These two continue to fight.” 

Oro smiled contently, “Actually, I like this. It’s nice for everything to be back to normal for a day.” 

Grandmother then asks, “(Which leads me to wonder where you have been, Lance?)” 

The table turned silent and all eyes were on him. Shiro looked worried, “Lance, what did she ask?” 

Lance tries to answer confidently, “(Fighting. Please keep it at that.)” 

Grandmother looked surprised at first, but then smiled, “(Anything for my boy.)” 

Keith stares at his food, ‘Lance is not a reliable translator. He doesn’t translate specific things. Dammit! If only kids were allowed-‘  
“Holá!”

Keith yelps and his leg hits the table. Lance looks at him weirdly, “Keith, are you okay?” 

Keith rubs his leg, “I’m fine! The...table cut into me?” 

Really Keith? That was stupid. Lance snickers, “I remember when that. The table had a lot more nails under it and I cut my knee.” 

Karmen howls at the memory , “Right! I was 6 and and you were 3. You cried like it was gonna kill you!” 

The two bickered once again and Keith took that time to raise up the table cloth to see Zamora underneath.

Keith glares and whispers, “What are you doing there?” 

Zamora smiles, “You know that Lance is not a good translator, right? I could help, you know?” 

“You’re going to get in very big-“

“Keith, it’s not like you’re gonna die!” Lance says playfully. Keith drops the tablecloth, “I-I know. Just...checking?” 

Lance rolls his eyes before he turned serious as Zamora starts to translate the conversation, “(Papá. I have a question.)” 

Said man smiles without knowing, “(Sure son!)” 

“(Do you hate me?)”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	4. Graduation Day

An eerie silence hung in the air as Lance awaits for his father’s answer. Instead, his father’s smile returns and he laughs, “(Son, I could never hate you.)” 

His face turned calm, “(How could I hate my own son who graduated for being an amazing fighter? He is very obedient and I could never ask for a better son.)” 

Oro smiles at this. At least everyone knows the answer to the big question. Keith smiles as well when he hears Zamora silently translating those words. 

Karmen hated to cut through the happy moment but she said, “(I’m sorry but I have to go. I have a job. My client asked to do it during this time.)” 

Keith looked confused, “Client? Why is she dressed like that?” 

Zamora shrugs, “I don’t know. Karmen dresses like that a night, though. If it helps, she sleeps all day.” 

Keith had more questions now, “What the hell?” 

Zamora shrugs, “Oro too. Hey, can you pass me a cornbread?” 

Keith takes it and gives it to her. Karmen gets up and pushes in her chair before leaving. Lance’s father calls out, “You’ll do great, cupcake!” 

They all heard a loud groan and the door slams shut.

Oro looks to his father, “(Papá, if I may?)” He leaves as well. Lance looks to his father confused, “(Papá, they were partners?)” 

Lance’s father laughs, “(I’m surprised but they got along well.)” 

There was a loud groan from the end of the table. Hunk looked sick, seeing that he ate half the food already. Grandmother, who was too busy eating, looks at him, “(At least we have enough guest beds. Lance, you might need to sleep with Oro.)” 

Lance translates for Hunk, “We have enough spare beds. I think I have an idea for who to sleep with who.”

A couple more hours later, Lance was sleeping in Oro’s bed. Pidge and Hunk were sleeping with the twins, Pidge sleeping with Rosa and Hunk sleeping with Romeo(both thankfully potty trained). Shiro and Keith slept together in the only guest room. Oro came in, Lance scaring him before he just smiled at the sleeping form. A dip in the bed 5 minutes later woke Lance up. “Wha-“

“Shhhhh.” Oro hushed him, now in casual sleeping clothes. The chirping crickets filled the void of silence. 

“Do you remember when we had to sleep in the same bed?” Lance asked. Oro hums, “Quite the brat, you were. You cried to have your own room.” 

Lance smirks, “Yeah.” 

When Oro spoke again, there was sadness, “Yes. You were...a brat. You wouldn’t listen at all.”

“Oro...”

“And you would complain about the smallest things.”

“Oro...”

“But you were always so happy. Always going outside, maybe by yourself sometimes.” Oro hugs him from behind, “I missed you so much, Lance.”

“I know...”

Early in the morning, the paladins had to borrow casual clothes. Afterwards, everyone tried to fit into a single Honda Pilot. The people who had to stay behind were Grandmother, the twins, Zamora, and, obviously, the baby. The two hour drive was uncomfortable and tense to say the least. And then Lance saw it. That bland building that blended in with the tan rocks. Some could possibly mistake for some type of normal house in the rocks but...

”Okay! We’re here!” Lance father calls from the front. 

Karmen stares at the building and sighs, “Wow. Really brings back memories.” 

Lance sighs, “Yeah.”

Keith had to ask, “Why are you guys so depressed?” 

Karmen answered, “Well, we were-“ 

“Karmen!” Lance hisses. 

Karmen glares at him, “(You never told them?!”) 

Lance rolls his eyes, “(No! And I’d like to keep it that way. Keep them away from the auditorium, okay?)” 

Karmen shakes her head in disappointment but agrees to anyway, “Yeah, sure.” 

Everyone stumbles out of the car and into the open doors. The older kids were hanging around with the drinks and food, happily chatting away. The smaller kids weren’t dressed but hung out anyway. Lance sighs, thinking back to it all. Then he remembered to pull his hood up before someone noticed. 

“Woah! This place is huge!” Pidge exclaims. 

Hunk didn’t like the food though, “But that doesn’t look any good.” 

Shiro added, “Let’s just stay together guys.” 

Just then, and old man with a silver beard appeared, “Why hello? Are you new here?” 

Lance answers for them, “I’m hear to watch my friend graduate.” ‘Keep it brief, Lance.’ 

The Headmaster smiles, though it looked fake this time, “Of course.” 

He walks off. Lance gulps. 

“What was that about?” Hunk asks. 

“Nothing! It’s nothing!” Lance says, “You guys just stay here and away from the auditorium.” 

Lance quickly walks off as well, in search for Shiho. Karmen quickly takes Shiro’s hand, “Come on! I can show you something cool!”(And that’s how Shiro lost his v-card...jk) 

Before he could protest, Shiro was dragged off. Pidge face palms before she looked to Hunk, who was staring at the food hungrily. 

“Man, I’m so hungry, though.” Pidge stares at him confused, “But you ate half the food at the feast last night.” 

Hunk shrugs, “Good point.” 

This building looked half done, Keith notes. Steel beams were lined across the top of the building and there were tons of beams at one section of the building that lined up vertically. He used this to his advantage. As Lance walked throughout that section, Keith followed his lead, sneaking behind him. 

Lance wasn’t paying attention when he bumped into a hooded woman, “Oh! Are you an assassin here? I’m looking for Kazuko Toshihiro.” 

He saw the woman frown, “Oh? I apologize but she’s gone.” 

Lance was shocked, “Wh-What do you mean-“ 

His attention turned to the white thigh high socks the woman had, “Wait a minute. My friend wore those on Graduation Day! Shiho?” 

The woman chuckles before taking off her hoodie, “Wow, you even remembered that part, huh?” 

Lance scanned her to process how different she looked before he hugged her tight, “Shiho!” 

She hugs back tearfully, “Lance!” 

He pats her hair down, or at least part of her hair, “You...you cut your hair!” 

True enough, the right side of her hair was shaved off while the left side of her hair was heavily layered and dark yellow, almost orange. She had a tiny nose piercing on the side of her ears. The weirdest thing was her ears. There were purple furry ears on each side of her head. Lance had to ask, “Shiho? You have ears?” 

Shiho smiled at him, “A new head band. You like it?”

Lance was too happy to question more. He finally let go, “Shiho. You’re not even dressed.” 

Shiho sighs, “It’ll be fine. The Graduation is in a couple hours anyway.” 

She took off her cape and then Lance saw it. There was a large, dark tattoo on her arm. It was black and purple with colored orbs and some white dots/stars on the design. 

“Did you...?” Lance gasped. 

Shiho smiles happily again, “You talked about going to space before when you heard about the Garrison. I’ve always wanted to do this for a while. By the way, what have you been up to?” 

She turned serious, “You kept innocent people alive?” 

Lance gulps, “Yes...but-“

 

“That doesn’t matter.” Shiho says, “As long as you’re back, I’m happy.” 

Lance sighs as he stares at the tattoo. He could remember when he first got one. It was a few months before Graduation.

*Flashback*

“So you want this design?” The artist asks. It was a large drawing of two masks that were back to back to each other. The happy mask was looking up on the left while the sad mask was looking down on the right. The only color was a bruising red for the masks. There was also a red ribbon that danced around the entire thing. 

“Yes.” Lance said, “That one.” 

It took 5 hours on the first day and 2 on the second day. Finally, on his scarred back, he had a large and dark tattoo that matched his drawing. Lance was so happy he could cry, “Thank you so damn much!” 

The tattoo artist happily took a sip of her coffee, “Don’t mention it.”

*Flashback end*

“Hey, I haven’t seen Hachiko. He’s always making a scene. Did they break him?” Lance pushed.

Shiho looked down, frustrated, “No...he quit.” 

Lance froze, “He...what?”

“He quit.” 

Lance didn’t know how to feel. He was an asshole, sure, but it was rare that assassins quit. 

“How long did he last?” Lance asked. Shiho clenched her fist and looked up at Lance, “I heard that the poison kicked in during a lunch with his mother. The poison was strong...”

“What?”

“He didn’t even last 5 minutes.”

Lance stared down at his shoes, “That’s...fucked up.”

When an assassin quits, they are forced to do this ritual:  
There are two cups displayed on a table. They are supposed to choose one they think doesn’t have the poison. The cup is filled with apple juice, the headmaster’s favorite drink. The poison takes one entire day to work, leaving no symptoms. If you don’t drink the poison, that means you’ll be okay and live the rest of your life freely. But if you do, that poison can hit you hard. Of course, you start coughing like crazy and you start to cough out your throat until there is no more of it. If there’s no wind pipe, then there’s no air so you start to suffocate until you finally pass away. Very few make it to the hospital and live. Very few pick the right cup. Most either die in their homes or hospital.

Shiho changed the subject, “I saw your friends. Do they know?” 

Lance’s breath hitched as he feigned ignorance, “Know what?” 

Shiho rolled her eyes, “That you’re an assassin?” 

Lance got a little angry, “As far as they know, they think I had a happy, normal life. I don’t want them to know how I was abused, or how I went for weeks with little food, or how I cries myself to sleep. Or even how they broke me just to become an assassin.” 

Shiho remained calm, “You should tell them.” 

Lance sighs, “I just...don’t want them to know, though.” 

Shiho nods, “Okay. Where are they now?” 

“Karmen’s distracting them.”

Keith stared in horror, “Lance...was an assassin? He was part of this group?” 

Keith felt angry...but most of all hurt. What has he been through was the biggest question. Lance said he was abused. Yet he never saw scars on Lance’s body when they both went to the Altean Pool. Keith would have to wait though. Keith might be bad with social interaction but even he knew that it was a dick move to just ask Lance on this special day. Keith had to get out of there so he wouldn’t choke a bastard.

There was a tug at Pidge’s shirt. 

“Hunk. Pidge.” 

There was a British accent behind the voice. Pidge looked up and saw a brown face with purple markings, “Allura! And...Coran?”

Each were wearing disguises: Coran wearing the crappy one when they went to the space mall while Allura was only wearing a dirty brown hood. 

“We couldn’t miss this for Lance.” Allura stated. Coran also added in, “Oh yeah! I also wanted to hear about this ‘rain’ he was talking about.” 

Allura now got lost, “What is rain?”

Pidge answered, “It’s when the clouds have too much-“

While Hunk choked, he said, “English, Pidge.”

“Ugh! It’s when water comes from the clouds above us!” 

That’s when the intercoms went on, “All Graduates report to the back stage. All students arrive to the auditorium in an hour.”

Pidge looked to a now okay Hunk, “I guess we should find Lance-“

“No!” Suddenly, Karmen interrupted them. All their attention was turned to her, “Why?” 

Karmen gulps, “W-Well...Lance’s friend gets very nervous.”

“She’s doing this in front of hundreds of other peers.”

Karmen sweats. Shiro, who was behind her, pushed on, “Karmen, what’s this about? It’s like you guys are trying to distract us from the auditorium.” 

Karmen gasps and holds her breath. Shiro noted to her, “You showed me so many things this past hour but there were a few weird ones. A bunker? Fighting rings? I even saw a shooting gallery. Karmen, where are we?”

When she didn’t answer, Allura got frustrated, “What is with you humans?! Just answer the question.” 

Shiro also begged, “Karmen, if you really are my friend, just help us.” 

At that point, Karmen had to cave, “Fine...I can only say this. We are in an Assassin Organization called ‘Símbolos de la nueva esperanza’ meaning ‘Symbols of New Hope.’ That’s all I can say.” 

Pidge thought out loud, “Huh? Why is Lance’s sister graduating here?”

“Don’t think too hard; he’s an assassin.” An infuriated Keith appeared. 

The entire group stared in shock. 

“He what?” Hunk asked. Keith continued, “I heard him talking to his friend. He confirmed he was an assassin. He was abused and had little food. I don’t know how long he suffered though.” 

Karmen kept silent, having a guilty look on her face.

“Well?” Keith was getting more frustrated, if that was even possible. Karmen doesn’t say anything. Keith took his blade and pinned her against the nearest walk while she took the hit, “How long did he suffer?!” 

The team freaked out. Shiro tugged his arm, “Woah! K-Keith!”

The once noisy banquet was now silent, their attention directed to the scene. 

“Well?! Why didn’t he tell us about this?!” Keith was ready to plunge the dagger. Karmen didn’t cave in this time as she choked out, “I can’t say anymore. You’ll have to ask the man yourself.” 

Keith was surprised by this but then growls as he braced himself for the kill. He ignored the shouts of his name or the tugging at his body until his arm was forcefully grabbed and was twisted before his back. Karmen coughs and gasps for air with Shiro and Coran at her side. 

Keith soon learned that his assailant was Oro with his father coming to the rescue as well. 

“Why the hell are you attacking my daughter?!” He looked pissed for the first time. Keith wrestled out of Oro’s lock, “Your son was an assassin and he never told us!” 

Lance’s father looked worried before he understood why, “Ah...there’s a reason why he doesn’t want us to know. Please don’t push the subject.” 

Keith was fuming, “Hell no! I’m getting answers now!”

“Woah woah woah. What is all this about?” The Headmaster calmly came between the arguing.” 

Karmen managed to answer, “A girl...I think her name was Kazuko Toshihiro. Could we please meet her?” 

The Headmaster thankfully agreed, “Of course. Though we only have a limit of 4 more people.”

Shiho bit her lip until it bleed and now it swelled up. She was fully dressed with her pink, velvet like dress and sparkly heels. Lance snickers, “You nervous?” 

Shiho snaps back, “At least I didn’t break a glass cup.” 

Lance groans in fake pain, “(My heart...it’s hurting again.)”

The door suddenly bursts open, scaring the two. Keith looked ready to kill, followed by a protective Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro. Lance tried to salvage the last of his façade, “Hey, Keith. You looked pissed. Did someone take your teddy bear?” 

Instead of yelling back, Keith looked hurt, “How can you act all happy when you’ve been through so much shit!”

Lance, for the first time, was scared as he tried to find a way to change the subject, “Hey...language.” 

Keith was about to pop a vein, “ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!” 

His voice boomed through the empty space and scared everyone else except Shiho. Lance sighs, “How much do you guys know?” 

Keith growled, “Well, you confirmed you were an assassin-“

Hunk added on, “And that this place is an organization!” 

There was a lingering silence(which Lance was used to now)until Lance chuckles humorlessly, “Wow...of course.”

His vision were blurry, “The secret I kept for so many years from the public is now out because of one sentence. Amazing.” 

Keith looked nervous, “So you’re....is it true?” 

Lance says sadly, “Yes. I am an assassin.” 

Keith looked broken once he heard that sentence. There was no tone in his voice, “Then how long?” 

Lance didn’t answer so Shiho did for him, “It takes ten years to be an assassin. You start at the age of 5 until you’re 15.” 

Pidge looked like she was about to cry, Hunk looked sick and Shiro was frozen with fear. 

“Were you abused?” Keith asked straight away, not even trying to stop himself.

Lance shudders, “Yes. I was shot at, cut, whipped and went for days without food. But...” Lance looked to Shiho and they both smile, “She was the only one who brought me food.” 

Keith had to smile a tiny bit at that part as Shiro thanked Shiho, “Thank you for taking care of him. But Lance...why would you keep this from us?” 

Lance bit his lip and looked away from the paladins. Shiho could only rub her face from knowing what was going to happen next. Shiro was getting impatient, “Well, Lance? You can’t keep hiding forever.”

Lance’s fingernails dug into his palms as he kept silent. Keith growled from extreme impatience and frustration that was building up, “You can’t keep this shit up! You’re going to open up one way or another on day and that day is now! Lance, stop hiding and face the truth!” 

Lance couldn’t stay silent for any longer. Shiho backed away as he starts to laugh, which grew in volume and then it started to bounce off the wall. This wasn’t the loud laugh Lance used to do. No...it was filled with insanity and a darkness that was hidden inside his heart. At that moment, Keith regretted pushing too hard.

“Do you wanna know why I lied?! Do you wanna know why I don’t want to face the truth?!” Lance roared, no longer in control of himself. Shiho, for the first time, looked a little scared, “Lance...think about what you’re saying.” 

He didn’t seem to hear her, seeing that he continued on, “I never wanted to admit to this for all these years! On this very important day, I had to kill someone important to me! I had to! I fucking had to! Do you know who it is, Keith?!” 

Keith shook his head, terrified of what words would come out to trigger the raging man even worse.

Lance laugh maniacally. “It was my mother! That’s right! You heard me! It was my own damn mother! I placed the barrel directly on her forehead while she screamed for mercy! But you know what I did?! I pulled it! I pulled the trigger as she screamed my name! But i had to, you know! She was a traitor!” 

At this point, Lance’s tears streamed down his face as he continued to yell himself hoarse, “BUT IN THE END, MY MOTHER’S CURSE WAS PUT UPON ME! NOW I’M WANTED HERE FOR TREASON!” 

Lance calmed down a little as he looked to Shiho, “Do you know how they found out about it?” 

Shiho’s voice sounded breathless, “An assassin infiltrated the Garrison and was ordered to kill one of the astronauts assigned to the Kerberos’s mission. But the launch was a success. I’m guessing...that was you?”

Lance finally calmed down, tears falling on his shoes, “Shiro...when I first got there, I was supposed to kill you. Do you understand? But in the end...I thought you were innocent and left you alive, only for you to get tortured later. I’m a traitor...I’m no better than my deceased mother.” 

Each paladin had different expressions. Pidge was too shocked to cry out loud, Hunk looked more sick than before and was about to faint, Keith looked regretful and horrified while Shiro was expressionless. That’s when a familiar voice cut through the tense atmosphere like a knife, “That you are, Lance Mcclain. You are no better than your mother.” 

Unfortunately, the Headmaster heard it all. He shook his head as he circle a terrified yet now composed Lance, “You left the poor man to live, only for him to be taken and tortured. You could’ve given him a mercy kill.” 

Shiro tried to defend himself, “No. I’m fine. He did the right thing.” 

The Headmaster glared at Shiro, making him silent, “When an assassin is given an order, they are to fulfill to its entirety. Sadly, Lance hasn’t done that.” 

Keith felt nervous as he stupidly asked, “So? What’s it to you? Why’s he wanted?” 

The Headmaster was more than happy to answer though, “This counts as ‘Treason’ and this obviously means that he...will be executed.” 

The paladins(except Lance)gasped, “What?!” Pidge whimpered, “You can’t do that! He’s our friend.” 

The Headmaster shook his head, “As of March 1, 2135, he is property of the ‘Símbolos de la nueva esperanza’ organization. Besides, he was never your friend. Assassins can’t be friends with anyone if they can’t feel. He was tricking you all.” 

Lance continued to look down in shame, “That’s right. I joined the Garrison and pretended to be friend with you both, Hunk and Pidge. I pretended to have feelings. This was to kill off that one man... Takashi Shirogane. In the end, I was too weak and and he was alive.” 

Shiro looked helpless, “That’s not true! I-“ 

“Everyone please report to the auditorium.” The intercoms sounded to everyone’s horror. Lance fate was sealed. The Headmaster was was more than happy to make it worse, “We can’t make Lance wait for a year. We could just....execute him now!” 

 

As the Headmaster said this, two security guards came behind Lance, one having a cloth with chemicals. The cloth was shoved in Lance’s mouth and the ex-assassin made a muffled scream before he passes out. Hunk and Pidge scream in terror as they watched Lance fall into unconsciousness. Keith grits his teeth, “You can’t fucking do that!”

The Headmaster shrugs, “The show must go on. He’s a traitor, after all.” 

Keith took out his knife, “Traitor or not, he’s still our friend-“

“May I have the honor of executing him?” Shiho asks calmly. Keith stares at her in surprise before he comes after her, “You bitch!”

Shiro and Hunk pin him down with a loud thud. Shiho kept her calm. The Headmaster hums, “Why would you ever want to do that?” 

Shiho calmly replies, “I was his friend during his training. I want to see the betrayal in his eyes as I take his life. Then he’ll know how the organization felt as he took such reckless actions.” 

Keith screeches at her, “Fuck you! He came back for you! You fucking bitch!” 

The Headmaster looked more annoyed than scared, “Get that ‘thing’ out of the backstage before I shoot him. Put a hemp back over the traitor’s head and tie him up.”

Shiro and Hunk struggled to keep Keith down, but the red paladin pushed them off and went straight for Shiho again. Shiho grabbed him by the neck, once he was close enough, and turned the building speed into force as she bashed his head into the ground. That seemed knocked the wind out of him. The Headmaster scoffs, “How reckless. Such a selfish man too.”

He calls for 8 other guards, “Contain them.” 

“Where is Lance?” Lance’s father asks from the audience next to Karmen. Allura, who was with them along with Coran, wondered too, “Yes...where are the others too? The Graduation is about to start.” 

Even Karmen didn’t know where they were as she shrugged. Coran fiddles with his mustache, “Maybe they’re watching from the backstage.” 

Oro reassured them, “They’re probably fine. Let’s not worry on this important day.”

The crowd then quieted down as the Headmaster took the stage, “Ladies and gentlemen. We stand here today with 1,340 training assassins and 1/10 of them leave from here to the real world. These young men and women have trained for 10 years, struggling through intense work outs and unfair fighting but now they stand here proudly today. Confidently and proudly, I now announce the Graduates of 2140.” 

Everyone sat through 30 minutes of it. First, they heard the oath about several times. Next, to their horror(Mostly Coran and Allura’s horror), they watched as the graduating assassins kill other humans with no hesitation at all. 

“Why are they...doing this?” Allura asks silently. 

Lance’s father chuckles, “They are traitors to this organization. They deserve it so don’t worry.” 

Allura had a wave of nervousness wash over her as he said that, “Right.”

“Kazuko Toshihiro.” The Headmaster announces after “Aidrian Toran” obtained the knife. Karmen smiles, “Hey! That’s Lance’s friend!” 

Lance yanks his arm, but he found that it was restrained like the other one. All he could see was brown fabric over his eyes, as well as a bit of red in the corner. He knew there was no fighting it. He should probably just take it. He wondered if his Shiho was okay with this. There was that muffled sound again, “...ko....hi...o.”

There was more muffling. It sounded feminine, “I....vow...life....ever....organiz.....consequences...assassin....resource...job...creemé.”

Lance guessed that was the oath. There were soon applause. “Let’s go, ‘traitor.’” A young voice came from his left. He didn’t try to fight. He heard muffled yells, “Lan....LANCE! ...ce...ease!”

He was then pushed to the ground onto his knees and the bag on his head was ripped off his head. The blinding light was what he first saw. He didn’t hear anything else. He looked up at a young figure. The dress...the tattoo...and the hair. For his second graduation in his life, he had the shock of his life, “Shiho?”

She didn’t faze as the barrel was aimed for his forehead, yet not directly on his forehead. Allura gasped, “Oh god! Someone help him!” 

Lance’s father was in shock while Karmen looked like she was about to have a panic attack; she couldn’t move. Oro could only stand but was frozen. Coran struggled to get up, as well as Lance’s father.

The paladins back stage tried to hold in their voices but they yelled and taunted as they watched their friend on the floor.

“You bitch!”  
“Lance no!”  
“He’s my friend! Don’t so this!”  
“Lance! Do something!”

Despite all the commotion, neither of the childhood friends moved. It was like the world stopped during that terrible moment. Lance looked through his blurry eyes into her stale ones, “Shiho why? I trusted you. I came back for you, dammit.” 

She didn’t faze, “My heart belongs with organization.” 

That look of blankness didn’t reach her eyes, though. In her red eyes, Lance saw that glint of mischievousness and danger. That look of when she had a plan...and there was a low chance they could nail it. That was when Lance relaxed, closes his eyes and he places his trust in her once again. In that spilt second moment of insanity, everything happened in slow motion. Shiho moved her pistol a little bit downward and she pulled the trigger. It cuts Lance’s jaw and impaled itself into his heart. He collapses onto the wooden floor. 

Time went in full motion again, yet everything froze. Karmen stared emotionless, but her tears betrayed her. Allura sobbed in Oro’s arms as Oro stared with an angry and scary look his face while Lance’s father and Coran stood there in regret, at the stage staircase. Like Allura, Pidge and Hunk each screamed and cried for their fallen friend. Keith stared at the floor while Shiro held in his tears. But the Headmaster looked worse. He looked pale, “Check his pulse!” 

The 8 guards scrambled to the unconscious body and one of them put two fingers on Lance’s neck. “He’s still alive, sir.” He whispers to the Headmaster so no one else would hear it.

“Wh-what’s going on?!” Pidge screams, “He’s dead so don’t drag this out anymore!”

The Headmaster ignores her and glares at Shiho. She looks to the powerless paladins as she whispers, “They were distracting.” 

The Headmaster was fuming, “Get those people out of my sight!” 

Altogether, the paladins and Lance’s friends in the audience were thrown outside and into the mud. Allura tries to get up, but slips into Shiro’s arms. Pidge tries to clean her glasses with her finger, but ends up smudging them worse. Hunk didn’t even try and stared into the puddle, trying to piece together what the hell just happened. Immediately, Keith rammed his body into the building door, “Open the fuck up!” 

He did this repeatedly until Shiro and Allura dragged him off, afraid that he would bruise his arm. Karmen and Oro help each other up, Oro having sprained his ankle from fighting too much. Lance’s father stares expressionless in the puddle, “My son...he’s dead.”

Finally, poor Coran could only watch as his family tried to keep it together. Heavy water fell from the skies and that’s when Coran realized. It was raining. It created ripple after ripple in puddles and doused everyone with thick liquid. Coran looked up into the grey skies. Lance was right. It was a beautiful sight. On that day, Coran first saw rain. But not in a way he wanted to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about messing up the last chapter. I meant the post this last week but anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	5. Kolivan?

*Later; 18:00 hours*

“Do you already know why I called you into office?” The Headmaster asks, hands interlocked and in front of his mouth. Shiho nods, “My Graduation didn’t go smoothly.” 

“Exactly. It’s not often it happens. In fact, this was a first, young lady!”

“They distracted me.”

“Assassin are to work against distractions. You were right there.”

Shiho had to make up something...and fast. “I was embarrassed to ask you this but I wanted to torture him.” 

The Headmaster was surprised, “Torture? This has never been asked for a Graduation before.”

“That’s why I was embarrassed.” 

The Headmaster pondered this for a moment before saying, “Well, you were the top of all classes. After Lance left, you were the best assassin. So...I guess I can allow this one chance. This shall be carried out tomorrow. But I can’t help but notice...are you planning something?”

Shiho gulps thickly before immediately replying, “No. I shall remain loyal to this organization.” 

The Headmaster narrows his eyes before he yells, “Perfect! Nothing else excites me other than trying our new things.”

*Time skip; 00:08*

Lance was on his side, sleeping when he heard a loud creak from behind him. He didn’t stir but he hears voices, an even more familiar one at that:

“Is this...?”

“Yes father...it is.” That would be Shiho.

“I never expected that we would be saving...him.”

“Trust me father. He’s a very trained assassin. He will fit right in, even though he’s human.”

“Very well, then. I will trust you.”

Kolivan?


	6. 4 Years Later...

Lance’s shoes matched the other pedestrians’ footsteps to the best of their abilities. Walking in boots like a normal person was hard for Lance. ‘The banquet is in a few hours. At least that’s what Sagra said.’ 

He saw his target in the middle of four other guards. Lance kept a silent glare on him, ‘That bastard knows where Kolivan went.’ 

“Don’t stare.” Shiho says in his ear, “It’ll make you look like a freak.”

Lance snorts as he yanked off his gray hoodie, “I already look like one.” 

Sure enough, Lance now had long, thick brown hair with dark blue streaks that stopped just above his shoulders. Some came down his face and covered his right eye while his long left bangs went behind his ear. He never got skin care again so now his dark brown freckles stood out on the bridge of his nose and his shoulders. There was a reason he had his right bangs over his eye. 3 red claw marks had recently come across his eye in a left diagonal and cut his eybrow. His cheek had 2 old white scars while his lip had a vertical white cut. If he was topless, he’d have more scars. Right now, he had a disguise that was a gray hoodie with sagging jeans and they both went over his uniform. Lance didn’t know why Shiho forced him to wear it. He had to change anyway once the banquet started. Lance sighs depressingly, “Sorry, Shiho. I can’t help it. I owe Kolivan my life. I have to find him.”

He could almost feel Shiho smile apologetically, “I know. I want to find Father too.”

*Flashback*

Lance rolled his body over and saw a bigger figure that was purple and had light purple ears. Lance gasps as he scurried away from it, dragging chains with him. He couldn’t see the figure since the light didn’t reach very far, so he had to squint. He had an only broad jaw and a permanent frown etched on his face with a large scar going down his face. 

“K-Kolivan?” Lance stares in disbelief. Said Galra was on his knees staring back with Shiho next to him. She barely stood taller than him at this point. Lance gives a playful glare, “That hurt like a bitch.” 

Shiho giggles, “It was the only way.” 

Lance snorts, “This thing is still lodged in. You know what they gave me? An entire cast that’s hiding my sexy right pec.” 

Kolivan broke up the short reunion, “I apologize for breaking this up but we must leave quickly. What about the others, Blue Paladin?” 

Lance stares at the fickle chain as Shiho answers, “As far as I know, they think he’s dead.” 

As Kolivan came closer to Lance and started to hack at the chain, he explains, “We must tell them the good news. They’d be quite glad to hear-“

“No.” 

Shiho looks up and Kolivan stops completely. Kolivan didn’t show it, but he sounded like he was in disbelief, “Why not?”

“I have multiple reasons.” Lance says sourly, “I can’t face them after they know the truth about my mom. Besides, I’m not needed.”

“But Voltron needs you!” Shiho added.

That’s when Lance gripped legs harder. Shiho understood this but Kolivan was confused, “Blue Paladin?”

Lance yells at him, “I’m not the blue paladin anymore!” 

Kolivan didn’t seem hurt and now understood what happened, seeing that he continued working, “I won’t push the subject.” 

Lance lets his tears flowed as Kolivan finally cut the chain loose. 

“I might...have an idea.” Kolivan says.

Lance wiped his nose, “What?”

“Ever since Keith left, I hate to say this but things are running smoothly. Right now, we are starting to gather stealthy people who could be assassins. I heard you graduated like my daughter did today. I...might have a place for both of you.” Kolivan suggested.

Lance’s eyes lit up in the night, “R-Really? Thank you.” 

Lance accidentally hugs Kolivan and Shiho snorts and looks away to keep from laughing. The Galran freezes, not knowing what to do. Lance didn’t seem to mind after he let go, “Well come on! We’ve gotta go!” 

Shiho checked the hallways for guards before she gave the all clear. They all made a mad dash for the cheap prison fire exit before disappearing into the night, running through damp grass.

*Flashback end*

It wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows for Lance. A year after his freedom from Voltron, he was captured by Zarkon...

“Lance!” Shiho calls again when the young assassin didn’t answer. Lance responded quickly that time, “Um...yeah?”

“You’re remembering that day, aren’t you?” Shiho asked, as if he was reading his mind. They always seemed telepathically connected for some reason. Lance frowns, “Yeah.”

He then laughs humorlessly, “He felt so tense when I hugged him. I wonder how he is now.”

Shiho sighs, “We’ll get him back. Let’s just...act normal for now. I’ll meet you at the banquet.” 

Lance heard the earpiece turn off with a crackle. He pushes his falling right hair piece back behind his ear and continued to follow the target. His target eventually reached the food court. It was large and grand but Lance was good at keeping an eye on his targets. Lance decided to get some food to not seem suspicious. He went to a place that seemed to have some good steak, “One of your signature steaks. Well done, please.” 

The place seemed to be called “Vrepit Sal’s”. Lance put his hand in his pocket and scanned the food court. The target seemed to be ordering an acidic squid(or at least it seemed to be squid-like). Perfect. But there was something odd. Odd like size differences. There was a tiny girl with very long(maybe orange)hair that ended halfway down her back with a large bow. There was a big fat man with a yellow bandanna that had the same shade of skin as Lance. The man also had half his hair tied up while some hair fell in his face along with a stubbled jaw. They were both in the same uniform, but different colors. He couldn’t help but shake the feeling that he saw them somewhere but he just didn’t want to remember.

Then, an odd muscular man came in...wait. Was that...? But it couldn’t be. The man had the sides of his head shaved except for his fluffy white hair on top, which lazily sat there. White?

“Fuck.” Lance breathed out, looking down, “Oh god.”

How are they here? Why are they here? These questions popped into Lance’s head until he heard footsteps. It was coming towards him in a walking pace. 

“Excuse me.” That familiar voice, “Do you...know about the banquet that’s being held here?” 

Lance looked up and through his right bangs to see the hot head himself. Keith no longer had the mullet that stuck out. His hair was longer and it was tied into a ponytail and his bangs were still there. He had piercings on the shell of his ears. Other than that, nothing else.

Lance scoffs, “I don’t, kid. Sorry.”

At this point, Lance knew that they didn’t recognize him as the ex-blue paladin. Who would? He looked totally different with shaggy hair. Just then, he realized that Keith was staring. 

‘Don’t move.’ Lance said to himself, ‘Don’t bolt.’

Lance grunts, “What ya want, kid? You starin at me like Ima three course meal.” 

Keith blushes, “I’m sorry. You just...looked familiar. Thank you...sir.”

Lance was pretty shaken after that, so he quietly leaned over the counter of the fast food place and pushed a red button that was underneath. It seemed to take a couple minutes(his ex-teammates thankfully chatting away) until a small security guard shows up. 

“Have no fear!” He says in an excited gruff voice, “Varkon is here.”

Lance snorts. 3 of the paladins started to make a break for it. A confused Shiro was almost left behind until Keith dragged him along. Lance was now furious, “Didn’t I tell that boy to tell me all recipients of the banquet?”

Lance left, no longer hungry and wanting to talk to his own team. He was in between a perfume store(seemingly) and a weapon store when he turned on his holographic wristwatch. A Galran male comes on with a worried yet expected face.

Lance scolds him, “Sagramour! I told you to give me ALL guests.”

Sagramour, aka Sagra, is a young Galran trainee that is good with affective science. Not very useful in wars but he’s good to talk to at least. He is friendly and is a little too talkative when he’s with someone he knows, but not as talkative as old Lance. Sometimes he’ll accidentally bring up sensitive topics but he will stop if you seem uncomfortable. Despite this, he is constantly trying to work hard to fit in, reminding Lance of himself when he was younger. He is always positive and bubbly. At least he’s not as annoying as old Lance. Sagra has an almost bowl cut styled hair, his purple bangs almost in his face. The only scar on his smooth skin was cut down his nose. 

“I’m sorry sir.” The young Galran looks away, “I didn’t mention it because I thought it wasn’t important.”

Lance groans, “Everyone on that list is important.”

Sagra frowns, “I also...didn’t want to bring up bad memories.”

Lance gives a smile small. At least this kid knew his boundaries. 

“Listen. It’s fine. Thank you for keeping an eye on my mental state but mentioning those names are important regardless.”

Sagra gives a sympathetic smile, “I-I’m sorry sir. You must really hate them, huh? I wonder why.”

Lance whispers, “Yeah. Anyway...where is Alastrine? Is she training or flirting?” 

Sagra rubs the back of his neck, “She’s...flirting with Haze again. He doesn’t look into it.”

Lance rubs his face, “He was never into anything, Sagra.”

Sagra puffs his cheeks, “Something will make him happy!”

Lance chuckles, “Where’s Mirna?”

Sagra looked over to where Lance assumed Mirna was, “She’s...distracted again with coding.” 

Lance shook his head. She was always distracted. 

“Just get them back into training. You can do that, right?” Lance says.

Sagra solutes him, “Yes sir!”

Lance noticed that he didn’t sign out, “Sagra?”

“I still wonder what they did to you. Because every time I bring them up...you always change the subject!” Sagra complains.

Lance huffs out a laugh, “I just do, okay?”

Sagra narrowed his eyes, “Were you part of Voltron before? Man! How cool would that be?”

“Well I’m not. This isn’t some story or fanfiction with some crazy plot twists.” Lance says, not knowing about what’s actually going on, “Listen, Sagra. I’m Ezuno, not Lance. I’m an assassin of Mamora, not the blue paladin. I had nothing to do with it.”

Sagra looked crushed as he signed off with finality, “Okay, sir. I won’t push.”

Lance sighs as he went back to tracking his target, who was noisily slurping the acidic “squid.” Lance could only wait for tonight.

—————

Keith stared at the front of the mall. Pidge was crouched in between her legs as she panted for air while Hunk was collapsed on the ground. 

Shiro scares Keith when he places a hand on the red paladin’s shoulder, “Hey. Are you okay?” 

Keith sighs, “I’m fine.”

He looks back to the entrance, “That man. He reminded me of Lance.”

*Time Skip*

When the king mentions “banquet”, he means clubbing. It was dark with only waving colored lights to help navigate. The upper floor consisted of a casino. That was where the king was. The downstairs was stage where they played upbeat club music with odd instruments along with a colored dance floor. There was a built in bar that was behind the glass elevator. 

Shiho uncomfortably tugs at her dress. She wasn’t used to wearing something so revealing. She wore a white dress with black outlining that stopped at her upper thighs and it was strapless, so it stopped at her sternum. She also wore boots that seemed to have a black and golden speaker design, almost like she was wearing speakers on her feet. To top it off, she wore a multiple layered necklace and bracelet. Her once bald side of her head has grown long enough for it to be flipped to the other side, giving her wavy, side swept hair.

She pounds the bathroom door, “Come on. It doesn’t take a boy that long to change.”

Lance shot back at Shiho, “That’s cause you have a single piece set!”

Shiho blushes in shock, “J-Just get out here!”

Lance finally opens the door, “Alright. Alright. I’m here.” 

Lance’s appearance was different. He wore black dress shoes with gray dress pants and a black belt. With no undershirt, he wore a very short sleeved checkered vest that only covered his shoulder. Lastly, he had a striped gray hat with a black band around it and had dark sunglasses to hide his face. 

Shiho scoffs, “You look ridiculous.”

Lance snorts back, “You wanted me to show a little of my scars off.”

Earlier, Shiho said that it was showing to much of her scars. Even with the foundation they bought, the outlines were showing. There were two shoulder scars and two on her lower jaw. On her right bicep was a large gash was so deep that it appeared on her tricep. A larger, deeper gash ended up on her other shoulder. More random scars ended up on her thighs, mostly stabbings but the most gruesome one was the large, bacteria shaped scar that had four lines each pointing out like a compass in her left thigh. Instead of covering it, Shiho instead had a large tattoo on her other thigh that had gray gears like a car engine and had torn skin that stuck across and around to add to the design; it was almost like she was a robot and someone had clawed her skin.

Lance also adds pervertedly, “I also never knew you grew so much. Even if it were an accident, I’d love to see you naked.”

Shiho rolls her eyes, “That was sad.”

Lance frowns playfully, “Put I never pushed my dick between a C cup before!”

“You’ve never pushed your dick in any girl or boy.” Shiho states while smirking, “And you never will.”

Lance falls to the ground coughing, “Oh why must you torture me so?!”

Lance lolls his tongue out and shuts his eyes. Shiho leaves him on the floor, “Come on. We’ve gotta go.” 

Their target was upstairs. It was predicted that the target would stick with the king all night. Lance and Shiho both went straight to the bar. Shiho passes on the offer but Lance had an alcoholic blue beverage. He downs half in one gulp. He slowly scans the dance floor. Shiho watches him tense up in random parts of his body. 

“Hey. You’re super tense right now.” Shiho says. Lance gulps, “I’m worried for my team. Half of them aren’t training. Not to mention that...I saw them.”

Shiho raises both her eyebrows in concern, “Which one?”

“All. I don’t think they recognize me, which is good.”

Shiho crosses her arms, “Then that’s good.” So what’s the problem?”

Lance gulps. “I just...Sagra never said Voltron would be there. He said he knew but-“

“He didn’t want to worry you. I know. That’s how he is. He can’t help but worry. Look, there’s no need to worry about Voltron. They won’t affect the mission. Besides, with teaching a mediocre team comes with some slopes. It’s like taking care of children.”

Lance smirks, “Oh? So you think I can be a daddy?”

“U-Um...”

“Maybe you could be the mommy? You’d make a great mom!”

“Whatever you’re thinking, get it out right now!” Shiho’s face was red.

Just then, Mirna appears on Lance’s wristwatch. Lance asks, “What’s the status?” 

Mirna is a female half Galran. She is calm, observant and analytical like Sagra, but she doesn’t appear that way. When she’s on her computer, she gets really focused and forgets the world around her, sometimes forgetting to sleep before she dozes off on her computer. Sometimes she’s smart, but can sometimes be blunt and honest which could hurt people. She is quiet and every time she talks, it sounds smooth. She has light purple skin and her ears were always pinned to her head, covered by her wavy hair. 

Earlier, Lance ordered her to scan for any sniper spots. Unfortunately, Mirna didn’t find any from a glance. 

“Someone will need to go up high and take a scan of the building.” Mirna says. Shiho looked defeated, “That’d alert people when they see multiple lights. I’d also need more time.”

Lance says this, mostly to himself, “I could buy you time.”

Keith, in his red uniform, was standing next to the food table with his arms crossed. He wasn’t very interested, especially after seeing that man. Maybe it was coincidence? After all, Lance is dead. But his heartstrings said otherwise. 

“What if he’s not dead?” Keith murmurs to himself. Lance died fo a shot in the heart, so it would seem impossible; said man also crumbled to the ground. He flips his now open hair behind him. If Lance were alive, he would come back to them immediately. That was final. 

‘Why the hell am I worried about this now?’ Keith thought as he looked up to his friends. Hunk and Pidge both seemed to be trying different types of drinks. Hunk passed her a drink that seemed to be red. Pidge shrugs and drinks it. Hunk laughs as he watches her both shiver and fan her mouth. Shiro and Allura seemed to be socializing but Coran was hiding under random tables and (unsuccessfully) hide from the “bandits”. Allura glares at Coran and scolds while Shiro watches, amused.

Keith smiles to himself, “Yeah. Let’s just...forget about it.” 

That’s when Keith spots a man with a hat going to the stage to the instrument called a TriAngel(a piano on earth but it makes a gentle warble sound with every note). Keith couldn’t help himself but stare as the man sat down with his hat tilted down his face. The starting notes were barely held out long as it started on A and D. It was followed by other fast notes with a slow base. Its tempo was fast yet the song was so delicate. The man’s hands gracefully moved across the piano as he replayed the melody again. Keith didn’t notice but everyone went silent, all of them in awe at the tune.

Lance’s mind and hands were in tune for only a moment until his mind drifted off to his lost leader: Kolivan. They had to get him back. He and Shiho were basically his saviors. Lance owed his life to them. As he played the melody an octave lower, his mind went to a precious memory of Kolivan:

*Flashback*

“So...I believe that my thumb presses down here this time?” Kolivan asks as he looks to Lance. The young assassin could giggle at how dumb Kolivan was. It wasn’t an insult but he’s always thought that Kolivan was good at everything. Lance nods, “Yeah. And that’s how you basically play Long, Long Ago.”

Kolivan sighs and shakes his head, “This is stupid. We should be training.”

“Well it’s better to know more, isn’t it?” Lance snorts out a laugh.

*Flashback*

Lance’s hands tense up but kept playing as tears trickled down his face. He couldn’t help but think about the pain his leader was in. What if they were too late? Lance grits his teeth. They had to at least try. He thought these last thoughts as his hands finally land on a high D. The crowd gives out a rain of applause and whistles. Lance bows before scanning to room to see his ex-teammates. Lance’s breath hitches but they don’t seem to recognize him. Shiho gives a thumbs up in the back of the crowd and Lance nods slightly. He walks off the stage.

Keith studied the man as he walked off the stage to what he assumed to be his friend. The girl...looked somewhat familiar. It was on the tip of his tongue and Keith couldn’t quite place it. Before he knew it, they were gone. Keith shook his head before he scoffs, “That’s not him.”

Mirna tells them the hiding spots, “Near the top of the building, there are four wooden planks that are sticking out in each corner. The best on is probably the one way high above the entrance since the casino floor doesn’t cover the target at that spot.”

Shiho looks to Lance, “You going to be good.”

Lance nods, “It might be a long distance but I can make it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Shiho’s tattoo: https://www.mybodiart.com/products/bionic-arm-tattoo
> 
> Here’s the song Lance was playing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=opgDY88KYeg
> 
> I don’t know if the character descriptions are official. I’m still kinda not good with them so please comment down below any tips or if you’re okay with the description. Anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	7. Identification

The dance floor was cleared and all lights were on. The attendees were crowded near the edges of the floor, making more than enough room for the paladins. The muscular king was wearing a gold robe lined with rubies that covered his entire body. To top it off, he also had a gold crown lined with Jade and Lapis. It was almost like a typical king. Pidge snickers, “Talk about over doing it.”

His deep voice bellows as he talked into the mic, “Hello, Paladins. We are honored to have you here today. This party was to celebrate our alliance with you.”

Allura was confused as she whispered, “Was he going to say yes all this time?”

“Probably.” Keith said without turning to her. But as the king said this, his “friend” that was at his side all night interrupted, “I’m afraid I might have to intervene.” 

The person snatches the microphone out of the king’s hands. The kings stares in awe as the person talks, “My name is Oddity. I have to say, I don’t really...agree with this arrangement.”

Instead of fighting for the mic, the king asks, “W-Why do you object?”

Oddity smirks, “Well, I just want to ask the blue paladin just in case but...can you tell me what happened to the real blue paladin?” 

Allura was even more confused, “I don’t-“

“That’s none of your business.” Shiro scolds. Oddity didn’t seem to hear him, “Lance was his name? Quite the charmer. He always seemed...so happy.”

“Shut up.” Keith growled and Allura frowns, “He’s gone, Oddity. He’s been gone for ages now. He’s dead.”

Oddity hums thoughtfully, “Oh really. Then why did I see him brutally interrogate an innocent Puigan the other day?”

Everyone gasps and looks to the paladins but the paladins each had the same amount of surprise. Pidge pushed, “Where is he?” 

Oddity shrugs, “I don’t know right now. I saw him weeks ago.”

Hunk was close to tears, “Why didn’t you report this to us?”

Oddity rolls his eyes, “Didn’t see the need to.”

Allura was too shocked to ask anything so Keith glares at Oddity, “‘Didn’t see the need to?’ I’m going to kill you!“

Shiro drags him back by the shoulders before finally asking, “Do you know what his objective was?”

Just then, Oddity smirked the most smuggest smirk anyone has ever seen, “Well, he kept yelling, ‘Where is Ko-?’”

His answer was stopped abruptly as a electric ball was shot onto his forehead. It immediately electrocuted him on impact and he falls to the floor. The mic falls as well, the high pitched, distorted sounds mixing with the panicked noises of the audience. The people there scrambled to find the nearest exit.

“There’s no way in hell I’m dying here!”  
“Get the quiznack out of my way!”  
“Move your asses! I’m more important than any of you!”  
“I don’t wanna die...I don’t wanna die!”  
“King? King! We must escort you!”  
“Yes! Please do! I must not die here!”  
“Ow!”  
“Move, fat ass!”

Throughout the pandemonium, the paladins could do nothing but stare, even as people pushed past them. They stared at Oddity. 

“What just-?” Allura tried asking but couldn’t as they saw a dark figure take away the body in two swift moves: in and out. Keith made a mad dash for the exit before anyone could stop him. Shiro calls for him, “Keith!”

Keith was long gone.

Oddity’s head made contact with the outside wall. Lance holds his blade up to his neck, “Where...is...Kolivan?”

Oddity chokes, “I-I don’t know!”

Shiho rolls her eyes, “Oh shut the fuck up. You know where my father is so speak up or die.”

“Please spare me!” Oddity begs instead. Lance growls and drags him away, Shiho following along. 5 homeless aliens stood in front of a blue fire, trying to warm themselves until they heard a commotion. They scurried out of the way as Lance held Oddity’s head over the fire. Oddity squirms, “Oh god fuck!”

Lance glowers at him, his legs pinning Oddity’s and Oddity’s hands tied by Lance’s own, “Where the fuck is Kolivan?”

Oddity’s chin kept getting closer to the fire until it grazed a burn on his jaw. He screeches in pain, “AIIIIIIIIEEEE!” 

Shiho got down to Oddity’s level, “This will be less painful if you tell us where Kolivan is. You don’t know this but we are assassin; we can torture you for days. We’ll make you beg for death. Even if you wanted to survive, you’d have to go back to Zarkon. You know what happens, right?” 

Oddity’s face burned as bright as the fire burning him, “Fuck off! I don’t know!” 

This resulted in him getting third degree burns on his cheek. Oddity screeches but Lance’s hold on him doesn’t falter.

Oddity gasps as Lance’s pulled his head out of the fire. Lance’s grip was even harsher on Oddity’s hair, “For the last time-“

“Huh?” 

Lance and Shiho look up to see the red paladin. Shiho glares at him but Lance stares blankly, “Who are you?”

Keith glares back, “What are you doing?”

Lance sighs but it was too late to answer back. Bullets started to hit the wall bounce off the walls. Shiho curses as she kicked her heels off, “Dammit.” 

Of course, the Galra were here to save the executioner. Lance rips off the band of the hat and ties up Oddity before the group bolted. Lance scolds, “Did you call them?!”

There was no answer from Oddity. Keith runs back to his own team to see that they were already fighting. Keith looked towards the other assassins.

“Hey! Follow me!” Keith called. This perked up everyone’s attention and Team Voltron ran after Keith. Lance and Shiho saw the ship and they both sigh in relief as they reached the ramp, Oddity staring at the outside world one last time in horror. Keith stopped and pointed towards the ship, “Go!”

Just as the Hunk and Shiro scrambled on, the ramp started to close. Pidge struggles to jump up as it got higher but Keith throws her up and Hunk catches her. Keith huffs. One large jump to make. He steps back and makes a run for it and jumps to grab onto the closing ramp. He rolls inside before the ramp closes. Keith pants as his body stays on the floor. Pidge and Hunk help him up. Pidge desperate asks, “Keith, are you okay?”

Before Keith could even answer, he hears an angry shout, “What the fuck?!” 

There they were. Team Voltron. Allura had shorter hair now, almost like a bob cut. Lance had to bite off a smile as she smiles apologetically. Team Voltron couldn’t see the man’s face. It was obscured by the mask he was wearing. That signature mask of the Blades of Mamora. But Keith knew it just had to be...

Sagra looked away, “I’m sorry sir.” 

Lance felt a little bad, “It’s not your fault. These bastards were the ones who decided to,” Lance glares back at them, “jump on MY ship.”

Keith was a little taken back by the attitude but he stood his ground, “Don’t give me that shit, Lance.”

Lance scoffs, “My name is Ezuno. I don’t know who’s Lance, but I honestly don’t care. Push anymore and you’ll be forced to give me reasons why I shouldn’t shoot you out of here.” 

Lance watches Keith’s contort to one of surprise and horror. Lance turns to Sagra, “You are in charge of guarding them. Keep them away from the control room.”

Lance sneers as he looks to Team Voltron, “And away from me.”

Sagra solutes him, “Yes sir!”

Lance whispers to Sagra, “Don’t believe anything they tell you.”

Sagra nods and Lance walks out, Shiho silently moving out the way. Keith looks to her, “You’re Shiho, aren’t you? Lance’s old friend.”

Shiho returns the same glare and tone, “And you’re Keith. Part of the team who kept some important info from him.” 

Sagra looked confused at Shiho as Keith opened his mouth to retaliate but no sound came out. Keith deflates as Shiro comforts him, “It’s not our fault.”

Keith stares at him, “No. It’s all of our fault.” 

Lance takes off the mask and watches as Alastrine tries to impress Haze with her “good” shooting skills. Of course, Haze isn’t paying any attention to her, more focused on his own fighting. That was fine. Alastrine was doing bad anyway. Alastrine was half galra and half Altean, like Lotor. She had soft, purple long hair that was tied up high with her bangs hanging loosely on each side of her face. 

She was extremely pretty and she knew it. She was like Lance except she was exactly like Lance. She is arrogant and confrontational; the size of her ego was bigger than her breasts and that was saying something. She was a big joker. Like Sagra, she can joke at wrong times but makes jokes and flirts regardless, making vulgar ones sometimes. She is free spirited, adventurous and brave though. But Lance knew that she was more than that. She was much more than a laughing stock; Lance would know. Her personality is more complex than that. She’s just outgoing and wants to connect with her friends. When her guard is down, she is very sensitive and distant. At some point, when her and Lance were alone, she said, “I wonder what Altea was like...” 

“Ally, at least try to look good while shooting.” Lance remarks. Alastrine smiles, “I always look good.”

With this, she shoots a bullseye. She celebrates loudly as Lance rolls his eyes but claps for her anyway. Haze was in too deep in training to even care. Haze has the same hair style as his brother Sagra, except his hair was longer and was dyed a full blue. His red eyes matched his brothers too but they were dull. Dark purple freckles decorated the bridge of his nose. Lance gave a thumbs up in question and Haze nods. Haze was a strong person who was very confident in his skills and decisions. He is very reserved though and as an independent individual, he was the hardest person work with in the group. He was always going out by himself and locked his mind and emotions from everyone. But after Lance and Shiho were rescued from Zarkon, Haze turned a little more into a leader. He was still reserved, but he started showing his confidence and leadership. He is now able to plan and makes easy decision. But the only thing is that he’s stubborn. Once the decision is made, Haze doesn’t turn back. He deeply values his friendship and tries to make himself less socially awkward. He’s not good but still working on it.

Haze wipes some sweat off his brow and, with an even tone, greets Lance, “Hello Ezuno.”

Lance smiles, “I see you’re training hard.” 

Haze nods but frowns as his gaze was casted down, “I’m trying...but.”

He looks towards Ally, “She’s being really distracting.”

Lance places a hand on his shoulder, “I will tell her that but you should learn how to work against distraction.”

Haze nods again, “Yes sir.”

Lance grips his shoulder tighter. Haze stares, “Is something wrong?”

Lance sighs shakily, “N-No. It’s just...”

Lance looks into Haze’s glowing eyes, “I want you to-“

“Holy shit! It’s Voltron!” Ally squeals from the front entrance. Lance sighs as he was forced to put on the mask again, “Oh boy.” 

Haze was first to push Ally out as she happily fangirled. Allura tries to reach out to Lance, “Ezuno, can you at least explain why you are acting like this?”

“Because I don’t know you and you just crawled onto my ship.”

Allura stays silent this time. Hunk was studying Lance’s mask closely as Pidge stood there analyzing the situation. Keith looked at Lance crushed and Shiro continues to angrily glare at Lance. Sagra fights back as well, “Y-Yeah! He hates you guys so stop asking!”

Keith stared strangely at Sagra, “Do you even know why he hates us?”

Sagra looked shocked, “Now that you mention it, he does seem to change the subject every time.”

Lance growls at Sagra, “Sagramour!”

Sagra makes a small “eep” before he says, “B-But I’m not going to doubt him! You have some nerve if you want to tell me lies about my great leader.”

Lance sighs, “He’s always overpraising me. Anyway, I’m going to interrogate the subject. They are allowed to sit in the control room but they must not touch anything and don’t let them walk out.”

Sagra solutes him, “Yes sir!” 

Haze watches as Lance walks into the storage room. Mirna taps his shoulder, “You seem pretty distant like before. Did something happen between you and Ezuno?”

Haze sighs, “He was going to tell me something but...I just wonder what he wanted to tell me. Or maybe it’s not important.”

Mirna smiles contently at him, “Haze, you are a pretty special person. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t important. I bet he wanted to tell you about how you’re stepping up to be a great leader.”

Haze blushes, “I’m...not that good.”

Sagra joins in, “Hell yeah you are! I bet Lance even knows. Maybe he’s trying to appoint you to be the next leader.”

Haze looked confused, “But...I don’t wanna lead. I’m still fine on my own. I don’t think I’m good with demanding people.”

“Hey.” Ally hugs him from behind, “Shut up. You’re the badass leader. You’re like the new Ezuno. You’re going to be that leader.”

Haze couldn’t help but smile with his friends but he glares at the Voltron Team, each having different expression of sadness, “Who the hell are you staring at?”

Haze looks to his team, “Sagra, take the big one. I’ll take the red and black since they’re the best fighters, or at least that’s what I’ve heard. Mirna and Ally, you each take the green and pink ones.”

Pidge was the only one who wanted to fight back, “If you think I’m just going to stand here-“

A gun was immediately pointed to her head. She shrugs, “Fair enough.” 

————————————————————

Oddity screeches again as a knife was dragged across his chest, reopening a wound that wasn’t even a couple minutes old. Lance fiddles with the bloody knife afterward, “I’m only going to keep asking you and I’m not going to repeat myself. Trust me, I know a lot of old medieval executions myself so make your choice.”

Lance smirks and stares into those red, terrified eyes, “Or I’ll be snapping one of those hot legs of yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	8. Torture Scene

Oddity openly sobs, “I-I don’t know! Ple-please! Stop! I can’t do this.” 

Lance grabs a small piston that had a large quarts plate attached and placed it on a crate and in front of Oddity’s knee, “Where is he?”

Oddity yells for help at the top of his lungs as he struggles against his binds only to give him more burning pain from the stab wounds in his upper arms. Lance sighs, “You’re such a little bitch. Even fucking Shiho had much more willpower. Of course, you’d know , wouldn’t you?”

Lance harshly grabs Oddity’s chin to pull his limp head to Lance’s level. Oddity struggles to ask, “So this is revenge?”

Lance shrugs, “That too. So you’d be here regardless but you know the location of Kolivan since you’re the torturer.” 

Oddity shakes his head as much as he could, “I don’t!”

Lance bangs Oddity’s head back on the metal rack, “You’re a shit liar.” 

Lance goes to the machine and starts to push buttons on it. In an instant moment, Oddity could scream as he felt immense pain. Suddenly, it was gone. Oddity looks down shakily, “Did you...you fucking bastard.”

Lance doesn’t say anything as he moves to the next leg. Oddity was helpless as he watched his other one get crushed. Lance shook his head, ”Tsk tsk. That’s a shame. We’ll just have to break your arms at a later date.”

Then, the storage room door opens. Lance greets the intruder, “Lotor.” 

Dressed in the normal Blade suit, Lotor had way shorter hair, his bangs cleared from his face and only covering his eyebrow. His long ahoge was still there but was a lot shorter now. Lotor sighs with amusement, “Well don’t stop. I cometh for entertainmentth.”

Lance rolls his eyes, “What are you doing here?”

Lotor sat on a sturdy pile of boxes and crates shaped like a throne, “I just saw Voltron in the control room. Are you sure we should trust them there?” 

Lance sighs, “I gave my team strict orders to not let them touch anything.”

“Well, Hunk is now the one controlling the ship so I thought I should let you know-“

“WHAT?!”

“I’m joking!” Lotor laughs at Lance’s angry face. Lotor then frowns, “Don’t be so harsh on them, okay? They may have hurt you but they still accepted you into their life. It’s not their fault that the lions didn’t choose you.”

Lance stares down at his feet and shuffles uncomfortably, “I know. But I just....”

“Anyway, is that fool over there done crying? He is so annoying. I’ve never seen a Galra cry like this.” Lotor complains, changing the subject.

“So he’s a little bitch?” Lance asks, raising his eyebrow. Lotor shrugs, “Basically. May I have a go?”

Lance looks into Oddity’s eyes, “You can try but the bastard’s not talking.” 

Lotor smiles as he walks up to Oddity and gives him a swift gut punch. Oddity chokes on his sob as Lotor start to beat every bloodied part of him. Lotor harshly grips Oddity’s arm wound, “You were the one who tortured Shiho, correct? I should’ve honestly killed you when I first saw you.”

Lotor signals Lance to give him the blade. Lance, now confused, gives it to Lotor. Lotor immediately stabs it into Oddity’s thigh and kicked it over and over again for good measure.

Lotor glares at Oddity, “That was for shooting a harpoon into my leg. I should do your other for shooting Shiho with it but it looks like Lance did it to your arms.”   
————————————————————  
Back in the control room, Sagra stands by the door, staring intently at each Voltron member talking amongst each other. 

“Why the hell did you literally throw us on a ship?” Pidge asks aggressively. Keith looked determine, “That’s Lance right there! It’s not common for humans to be far up in space. Plus he was yelling, ‘Where is Kolivan?!’ That’s what Oddity said. That’s Lance right there!” 

Shiro sighed, “Even so, that was reckless. What if that’s not Lance? Did you see that way the man glared at us?”

Hunk also points out, “He totally would’ve came back to us if he were alive.”

Allura adds, “Plus, they called him ‘Ezuno’. Not to mention that he is their leader. That definitely not Lance.”

Keith looked defeated again, “But...his skin color. He could just hate us because of...”

Sagra had to ask, “Um, can you tell me why boss hates you guys?”

Pidge shrugs, “Listen man. We honestly don’t know. We haven’t even met the man.”

Keith intervenes, “It could just be Lance.”

Shiro was getting frustrated, “Can you just let it go?”

Hunk glares at Shiro, “Hey! Don’t yell at Keith like that! Besides, what if it actually is Lance?”

“Not you too.” Allura groans.

Soon, the whole team was fighting over loudly as Sagra sighs, “I just wanted to ask.” 

Haze looks to Shiho with pleading eyes. Shiho nods and throws a knife between the group. With wide(anime)eyes, the group turns towards their attacker. Shiho growls, “Argue again and the next one goes between the ‘princess’’ eyes.”   
————————————————————  
Lotor frowns when he looks at Oddity, “He’s not talking.” 

Lance sighs, “I’ll try something.”

Lance pushes his fingers against Oddity’s deep chest wound, which had just stopped bleeding, “You are going to tell me where Kolivan is or I’ll rip your damn lung out and we all watch you suffocate.”

Oddity stares in horror and saw that Lance wasn’t joking. He felt his wound go wider and Oddity finally gasps for air in a panic, “OKAY OKAY! I’LL TALK! HE’S NOT ON THE MAIN SHIP! HE’S ON THE BALMERA!”

Lance snorts out a laugh as Lotor releases the breath he has been holding. Lance retracts his bloodied finger tips from the wound and crinkles his nose in disgust. It smelled in there. 

“Let’s go. Leave him to suffer.” Lance says as he takes the rag Lotor handed to him. Oddity stares with the same horror as before, “Wait! You’re not going to free me? Or kill me?”

Lance smirks, “No. I haven’t decided yet. It might be more fun if we gave you up to Zarkon.” 

As Lance and Lotor left, Oddity screams one more last time before the doors close automatically, shutting out all his struggling. Lance puts his mask back on again and walked into the control room and Team Voltron gasps, looking paler than normal. Confused, Lance looked down his body. He was covered in blood. Lance glares at Lotor, “You didn’t tell me?”

Lotor cheekily shrugs, “I thought you noticed.”

Sagra smiles, “On the bright side, your eyes pop out with all that blood.”

Ally smirks, “It makes you look sexy.”

Mirna nods as Haze stares at him with little surprise, “That’s not at all sexy but it makes you look threatening.”

Shiho crinkles her nose, “You smell like shit.” 

Hunk screams, “This is normal to you guys?!”

Sagra smiles, “Yeah! After interrogation, he always looks like that. That just shows how much he cares for Kolivan.”

“By the way, what happened to Kolivan?” Keith asks. Lance glares at Keith before his expression relaxes, “He was taken by Zarkon to another planet. I thought he’d be on the main ship like me and Shiho but Zarkon was smarter than that. I heard he’s at Balmera.”

Lance swore he saw Hunk’s eyes light up, “Balmera? Shay!” 

Lance instantly frowns at her name. He quickly walks out, almost running into Lotor. Lotor was quick to object though, “Not that part of Balmera though.”

Hunk pouts. 

*A couple hours later*

The ramp opens up again and 10 aliens stood side by side. The only team of Assassins of Mamora wore latex suits with no sleeves on them. This opportunity gave Lance to show off his tattoos. To Keith, Lance looked absolutely heroic. Lance’s hair flapped wildly in the wind behind his mask as his hand grips the roof of the entrance and the star shines on his smooth yet scarred arm. Well, considering it is Lance. 

“Get ready to drop.” Lance yells to his team. The assassins giggle as they got ready to fly. Pidge shouts over the rushing air, “But we can’t!”

“Then find your own way.”

With that, the assassins leapt off the ship. Haze counted down the altitudes by 1,000 as Shiho silently watches. At the 8,000 mile mark, they all activated their make shift wings and flied across the sky. Ally whoops as Sagra screams with joy. Even Mirna herself couldn’t help but smile. That joy was interrupted when they saw a red lion below them. Lance curses, “The fuck?”

Keith calls from the red lion, “Sorry we were late, Lance.”

Lance growls, “My name is not Lance.”

At this point, Sagra’s suspicion only grew. Now on the ground, the assassins and Team Voltron stood at the edge of a ravene. Haze calls through the assassin’s coms, “I’m detecting high activity from below.”

Lance stares at the purple glow coming from the side of the ravene. Lance orders his team, “You heard him. Let’s go.”

Just as Keith took a step, Lance pushes him down with a harsh growl, “Stay here.”

As Lance walks away, Hunk whispers, “Are you sure that’s Lance?”

Keith still nods with determination, “Yes. I’m sure.”  
————————————————————  
Lance jumps from rock to rock downward and onto a large rock sticking out. Mirna comes down safely as well as Sagra. Ally suddenly crashes in front of Lance’s face onto the rock. Ally looks up with a charismatic smile, “I still look good.”

Lance stares at her before saying, “You broke you nose.”

Ally screeches in horror as she reaches for her nose, which was perfectly fine. Lance smirks as they all took a step into the base.   
————————————————————  
Pidge was doing push-ups until her face fell onto the ground while Hunk stares at the ravene with an occasional shiver. Allura and Shiro were talking and looking at Keith with concern from time to time. Keith pays no attention to that as he picks at the grass underneath him. Shiro looks hesitant as he approaches Keith. He places his metal hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Keith, I think we should give this up. That’s not Lance.”

Keith looked crushed, “He is! His voice! His skin! Didn’t you guys see that?”

Shiro bit his lip, “We did...and we’ve analyzed it. That man’s voice is too deep and his skin...Lance vowed to never get tattoos.”

Keith stares into the ravene, “No...that’s him down there. That’s Lance-“

“Let it go, Keith!”

Keith was taken aback by the sudden ferocity but then heard lasers being shot from down below. Keith shakes his head, “I’m sorry, Shiro, but ‘that man’ could be Lance.”

Keith didn’t wait for Shiro as the red paladin jumped down the ravene. He barely heard his name being called as he tumbles and lands on the ledge. As always, he charges inside and he soon reaches the battle.   
————————————————————  
“Dammit, Alastrine! We’re assassins, not soldiers!” Lance scolds. Ally looks away in shame. Sagra glares at her, “How did you not see the tripwire?” 

Keith wastes no time as he pulls out his bayard and starts slashing. Lance grits his teeth, “Why the hell are you here?”

“I couldn’t just leave you here.” Keith yells over the commotion. Sagra and Ally stare in shock as Keith takes down one after the other. But this also raises Sagra’s suspicions even more. He asks, “Don’t you think that guy’s fighting style matches Ezuno’s?”

Ally shrugs, “Eh, who knows? Anyway, we gotta help him! Let’s save the captain!”

The coms crackle as Mirna’s soft voice whispers through, “I got the door open. I see Kolivan but it looks pretty bad.”

Lance’s heart stops, “How bad?”

“He’s barely breathing and there’s a lot of blood.”

Lance gulps, “O-Oh god.”

“Ezuno?”

Lance slashes his way through the oncoming Galrans and runs to Kolivan. His savior, their father, their brother. He doesn’t stop for a breath. Not until Kolivan was in front of him. Lance yells as he sees his body, “Kolivan!”

Lance couldn’t help but flashback to Shiho’s grunting as she was tortured. Or the state of her “mummified” body. There was Kolivan, hanging by his now skinny and bloodied wrists. His clothes were torn in various places(thankfully covering his spaceship). Stab wounds and slashes litter his body, covering his legs in purple. There weren’t as many cuts on his legs and Lance then understood why. In replacement of one of his lean legs was that Galran prosthetic. It was turned off now but it looked painful, as more purple seemed to flow through the entry point. 

Lance couldn’t help himself as a sob slips through. He rushes past Mirna, who was staring in surprise and concern. Lance almost slips on a purple puddle, “Oh god that’s a lot of blood.”

Then Lance sees a knife embedded in Kolivan’s stomach, “Fuck! Kolivan, stay with me.”

Time seemed to freeze as Sagra and Ally hear their leader curse and scream, “Is he...crying?”

Haze was shaking with anticipation as he holds onto that last thread of hope. Shiho doesn’t feel it but tears travel down her face as she waits for her father to come back to life. More Paladins seemed to join to the fight at some point, hearing Lance’s painful screams. Keith clutches his bayard harder, “Dammit.”

But then, in that hopeful moment, Lance hears a groan. Lance gasps, “Kolivan? Hey. Hey! Stay with me. You alright?”

Kolivan lifts his head up weakly and opens his eyes. Lance’s heart drops once again. In replacement of Kolivan’s right eye was a robotic, purple eye that seemed to be working perfectly as it dilated. 

“Fuck...what did they do to you?” Lance asks as he disables the handcuffs. Kolivan winces, “I...I can’t say.”

“Don’t talk.” Lance says was he wraps Kolivan’s arm around his neck, “We’re getting out out of here.”

Lance holds up a pistol and fires off at the Galrans as his fellow teammates work to keep the both of them safe. The main problem was that Team Voltron was getting in the way. Ally was getting frustrated, “What the hell man? Out of my way! You’re blocking my shot!”

Lance growls, “Voltron, get out of here. You’re going to get one of is killed.”

What they didn’t know was that there was that infamous harpoon gun. That harpoon gun that shot Shiho and Lotor. They didn’t know it was in range and locked onto Sagra until it was too late. There was a screech and all /Sagra groans as he clutches to his left leg. Lance stares in horror as Ally and Mirna rush to his aid, “Sagra! Oh god fuck! Hold onto me!”

Lance felt lost. This was the first time one of his teammates got injured. He was angry and just so confused. 

Sagra looks to Ally, “No. I’ll slow us all down. I can still walk. I’ll be fine.” 

Lance glares at Voltron as they stare with guilt and regret. Keith tries to apologize, “Lance, we-“

“Fucking save it.” Lance snarls as he shoots a Galran behind Ally, “I should’ve shot you when you boarded my ship.”

Keith winces at that but Lance didn’t care. His own teammate just got shot and it’s his ex teammates fault. At the exit, Hunk tries to offer a ride back up, but Lance quickly declines. Lance didn’t mean to sound harsh but still. They decided to ruin his life and then come back? No, that’s not how this works. Lance cradles Kolivan in his arm as he activates his jetpack and flies up to the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	9. Background Check

Nurse Orenda and Dr Nasya worked hard to save Kolivan. Lance takes off his mask once more as he changed out of his clothes and heads into his bathroom. He sighs as he felt the heat of the water. For some reason, a hot shower always felt like the best time of the day. As he scrubs his body, he takes note of various things on his body. His once caramel body was know turning a light, milk chocolate brown. It was most likely due to the fact that he hung out on the more dryer planets. He wasn’t very experienced in the cold after all. 

His collar bone and chest has more animalistic scars in patterns of 3 that went diagonal as well. His neck has a burnt chain mark around it and look even lower, you would find a thin red thin that also went around. Lastly, there was red large gash on his stomach that seemed to match the one on his back. Old lashes were still there from the time he was training. Along with the tattoo on his back, he had a large one on his left arm. It had green vines with the thorns on it that was twisted around a red dragon. It went up until it reached to his pec, where his old scar was. The tattoo circled around the scar until there was a small blue lotus on his scar. Like Shiho, he had stab wounds and cuts that were worse than her’s and you can guess who they were from.

Lance sighs as he thought back to when his skin was a little clearer. Or back to when he was such an idiot. He whispers to himself, “I should’ve killed Shirogane when I had the chance but....”

Shiro was his friend, even if he wasn’t here. Lance sighs again as he thought back to the recent events. It doesn’t seem like Team Voltron is convinced that it’s him. Even so, he is kinda being an ass to them. They may have lied to him but they were still his friends. Besides, he lied to his friends about his entire life. But their lie was totally different, wasn’t it? Lance massages his hair back, trying to get rid of all the shampoo, “I can't just take all my anger out on them. They just really care about me. Even if they don’t know it’s me.”

Lance knows his time is running out. He can’t keep this up forever. His hands travel down to scrub the new bruises until he went down to his pelvis and what hung there. As an assassin, he didn’t really care for dating in general or even getting laid but when was the last time he took a load off? Lance thought of this and sighed. He is so pent up. His hand travels down to reach for his shaft but then there was Shiho’s voice, “Lance? Are you okay? Your towel’s still out here.” 

Lance gasps, now red faced, “Y-Yeah! Yeah. If you could be a good friend?”

He hears her snort, “I’m already a good friend. Alright, I’ll go get it.”

“You’re too good for me!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Lance hears the bathroom door open, ‘I have to start locking my doors.’

The door closes once more. Lance peeks his head out to see the towel on the rack. His little friend throbs with need. Lance knew that a cold shower wouldn’t fix this.  
————————————————————  
Lance sits there with his arms crossed as he waits for the news. Dr Nasya came to him with relief on their face. 

“He is currently fine. He does need a cane to walk since he doesn’t know how to control his fake leg but he’s fine. Though, there will be a lot of scarring, especially for his stomach. I’m glad you left the blade in. He wouldn’t of made it.” They explain to him.

Lance pushes for more answers, “His eye?”

Ally comes out of the hospital room with a smile, “He can see through it just fine. Plus, I gave him a few more features cause’ I’m just that awesome!”

Lance smiles in relief, “I’m glad. Thanks Alastrine.”

The real smile on her face makes Lance smile even wider, “No prob. He’s awake of you wanna see him.”

Sure enough, Kolivan was sitting up on his bed with a crutch leaned on the wall to aid him later. An IV bag sits there, though not in use, and the monitor was turned off since his vitals seem okay. He has the same stoic look on his face before he got captured; like no time had passed. Lance is not hesitant to hug his old friend, “Dammit Kolivan.”

Lance feels a small smirk from Kolivan, “What?”

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“I’m still alive, though.”

Lance sniffles, “That doesn’t mean much. You almost died, Kolivan!”

A heavy sigh comes from him this time, “Fine, Lance. I won’t do it again.”

When Lance finally lets go, he gives Kolivan a shaky smile, “We, um...have more visitors and it’s not my team.”

Kolivan’s ears perk up in confusion, “I don’t...understand....is it my team?”

Lance shakes his head, “It’s Voltron.”

“I’m guessing they know it’s you?”

“They don’t actually.”

“Lance....”

“Kolivan?”

“You have to tell them. It’s time to reveal who you really are.”

Lance bites his lip until he tasted copper, “Kolivan, I can’t. They lied to me and I can’t let that go. Even if I wanted to join again, I wouldn’t have a place on the team.”

Kolivan looked tired already, “I see.” 

Kolivan grabs his crutch and stands up. He slowly hobbles towards the door, “I’d like to converse with them anyway.”

Lance wants to stop him but he had no room to debate, “Go ahead.”  
————————————————————  
There was a dark cloud hanging over Team Voltron. Sagra glared at Keith, but no for his leg but for making his leader angry. In fact, the other team mostly glared at Keith; as if he didn’t feel like shit already. Lance comes into the control room, “Are we playing a staring contest or...?”

Lance’s team jumps up and runs to him, only to be stopped by Kolivan’s sudden appearance. Shiho sighs in relief, “Father...”

Shiho hugs her father tightly, fearing he would disappear when she let go. Kolivan hugs even tighter, almost cutting off her air supply but Shiho could careless. Even Keith couldn’t help a smile when he saw the happy reunion. But that all ends when Kolivan looks to Shiro, “I’d like to chat with you for a while.”

Ally growls, “Don’t. They’re the reason Sagra’s leg got fucked up.” 

Pidge stares down at her shoes, “We didn’t mean to-“

“And they made Ezuno angry!” Sagra puffs his cheeks. Kolivan would laugh at Sagra’s obedience towards Lance, “So you come back and managed to get Sagra shot?”

Team Voltron looks down in shame. Kolivan sighs, exasperated, “How did La-Ezuno not kick you off the ship already?”

Lance crosses his arms, “I was going to after you woke up.”

Keith stares at Lance with disbelief, “But we never meant to-“

“Anyway,” Lance says, interrupting Keith, “You wanted to talk to them Kolivan?”

“I wanted to ask why you are here?” Kolivan blatantly asks. Before Shiro could even respond, Keith was first to say, “We want to find Lance.”

Keith’s eyes narrow towards the masked man, “...And I’m pretty certain that’s him.”

Lance breath hitches under the mask. Kolivan’s eyes darts towards him for a split second.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sir, these delusional people jumped onto my ship.” Lance complains a little too fast. Kolivan glares at Shiro, “You let them?”

“Keith was mostly leading.” Shiro says with a sigh, “We’ll take our leave immediately.”

Allura nods. Hunk seemed hesitant, “But...” 

Pidge shrugs, “Fine. You guys were bitches anyway.”

Keith wasn’t going to back down though,  
before anyone knew what was happening, Keith was clawing Lance’s face, the mask flickering on and off as Lance struggles to keep it on. Lance screeches and bites down on Keith’s hand. Keith curses as his hand bled, “Fucking ouch?!?!”

What Lance didn’t see was that Keith managed claw the inside of the mask; the mask malfunctioned and turned off. Lance stares in horror as Keith gapes at him, “Lance?”

Keith’s lip was trembling, “Lance?!”

Haze was first to defend Lance, “His name is Ezuno.”

“It’s not fucking Lance! Stop being butt hurt that your boy toy is gone!” Ally scolds. Mirna doesn’t say anything, not wanting to go into the crossfire. 

“You’re Lance!”

“He’s not Lance, weirdos! Get the fuck off the ship!”

“Language, Ally!” 

Sagra also didn’t defend Lance, “Guys, maybe he is Lance.”

Lance narrows his eyes, “You bit-“

“He always hated Voltron. Yet he never tells us why. Don’t you think it’s time for an explanation?”

Lance smiled at Sagra’s sudden confidence. 

‘He finally does something he’s decided. He’s grown. Even when he got his leg shot, he still stood with Voltron.’

“Yeah, okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay....I’ll talk.” Lance says. He watched as everyone’s face lit up with hope. He felt bad that it was about to get crushed. 

“Yes, my name is Lance Mcclain.” He says with finality.

“Years ago, I moved from Earth because the Blue Lion chose me. We then found Allura and Coran in some pods, who would later help us a lot. We soon learned that the Galra committed a genocide ten thousand years ago against the Alteans, which were their species. So we went on several missions to find a way to kill Zarkon and saved some planets in the meantime.” 

“Then, our leader was taken away. We didn’t know how but for months he was gone and Keith was leading us by then. When Shiro did return, he didn’t lead right away until Keith was spacing himself from us. Keith was forced to leave after that. We’ve been pretty organized, fortunately. That was until Lotor came after he was considered a criminal.”

Sagra smiles fondly at that memory, “And then he joined us.”

“That was because of the multiple panic attacks he had. Ever since his generals tried to sell him out, he’d always freeze up when he sees them.”

“Oh.”

“He also joined because I begged him to. I never even told Voltron this but I saw the harsh glares he’d receive. I worried for his safety. I know how it felt to be looked down upon or how it felt to be ignored. So I wanted a safer place for him.”

Ally pats his back, “And you were right, capt’n.”

Lance smiled, “Yeah, I was. Over time, I distanced myself from the rest of my friends. There was a reason for that. Then Shiho’s graduation came up. I begged Allura for us to go. I went but soon the people on Earth found me. I was considered a traitor but Shiho was there and only shot me in the heart.”

Lance playfully glares at Shiho. Shiho rolls her eyes, “It was either your head or your heart. And it wasn’t even your heart.”

Lance stared down at his shoes, “And that’s how I faked my death. Later on, Kolivan and Shiho came to save me. Only to find out that Shiho’s fucking half Galra and Kolivan is the father. Thus my time as an assassin started in space.”

Some people seemed satisfied but Hunk looked a little irritated, “But that barely answers Sagramour’s question.”

Lance huffs in exasperation, “Fine. Do you wanna know why I didn’t tell you?”

Lance glare intensified in power, “It’s because Voltron fucking lied to me.”

Haze pushed for answers, “What do you mean?”

“It means that they were going to replace me without telling me.”

Lance’s own team stared in shock at Team Voltron, who was looking down in shame.

Lance explained in more details, “Later on, Keith returned and Red didn’t hesitate to bond with Keith in secret. I then slowly saw that my bond was being severed and fast. I didn’t understand why. I tried everything. Then, I heard them.”

*Flashback*

“Keith, we know that Red is becoming very close with you. So we’ll replace Lance with you.” Allura explains. Keith was concerned, “That will crush Lance.”

Shiro didn’t seem to care, “We have to do what’s best for the team. Lance might be crushed but it’s time for him to step down.”

“What about the blue lion?”

“We don’t have time for a totally new team again.”

Keith frowns, “So who’s gonna tell him?”

The 4 paladins and Coran shuffle a little. Hunk sighs, “I’ll tell him...at some point.”

Unfortunately, Hunk didn’t need to. Lance had already heard. Now pissed, Lance punches the metal wall.

*End*

Team Voltron was shocked. 

“You saw that?” Keith asked. Lance looked ready to gut someone, “Yes...And you guys never planned to FUCKING TELL ME?!”

Lance’s own team took a step back, having never seen their leader this angry before. Lance clutched his fist so hard that it started to bleed. Shiho wanted to reach out to him, but knew it was best to leave him.

“I trusted you...I stayed loyal to you. And you never told me that I was going to be leaving?” Lance had a mix of emotions on his face. His face had sadness, confusion, disbelief and pure hatred on it. Even if his hair had fallen into his face, his aura would’ve shown it. Pidge and Hunk took about 500 steps back. Well, at least until they were pressed against the window. Keith wanted to say something, anything but Shiro said something this time, “It’s not your choice to debate whether you’re on the team or not.”

Keith looked shocked at Shiro’s sudden coldness, “Shiro, he’s still our-“

“I’d watch my fucking back if I were you.” Lance snarls, “I’m onto you....”

Shiro didn’t look too amused. He stood there with his arms crossed. Keith was confused, “What?”

Allura came between the two, “We’ve all had a rough day. In fact, we haven’t slept, have we? Lance, if you would please?”

Lance was pissed at them, but he wasn’t a dick. Lance sighs, “Sure. Ally?”

Ally looked reluctant but agreed, “Uh...yes sir.”

Lance’s own team moved out of Lance’s way as he left with Shiho following close behind. Both teams were left in the room with a stoic silence. 

Just as Lance’s door slid shut, Shiho’s hand slipped by. Lance groans, “Shiho...” 

Shiho glares at him, “What’s the real reason you don’t want to join?”

Lance doesn’t look at her, “What do you mean?”

“You’re not a hypocrite, Lance.” She states, “It’s about your mother, isn’t it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! A new chapter released on my b-day! Anyway, hoped you demons and ✌️!


	10. Intermission

“This is Dr Nasya and Dr Orenda.” Ally introduces them to the medical team, “Dr Nasya goes by they/them pronouns so please respect that.”

Allura holds out her hand, “Why hello, Dr Nasya.”

They smile as they shake her hand, “Hello, Princess Allura. I still can’t believe you’re still alive after all these years!”

Keith doesn’t really care anymore. He just wants to disappear off the face of the earth...or universe. Pidge bites her lip. Hunk twiddles his thumbs. Shiro isn’t even trying to be polite anymore. Allura’s poor chance of trying to brighten the mood failed. 

“Listen guys. Ezuno-er, Lance-just needs to warm up to you guys again.” Dr Nasya comforts them as Dr Orenda silently nods.

“Seriously? You think he’ll forgive them? They’re such assholes; selling out a good team member just for their own gain.” Ally sneers. Dr Nasya stays calm, “Now now, Alastrine. We don’t know what truly happened. It wasn’t their choice, perhaps?”

“Maybe...but the fact that they LIED to him makes it even worse fucking worse!”

“Alastrine! Language!”

“FUCK MY LANGUAGE! FUCK EVERY LANGUAGE THERE EVER WAS!” Ally shouts, startling Team Voltron. Pidge runs up Hunk’s shoulder and yanks on his hair, “Owowowowow! Pidge! My hair!”

Dr Nasya only pats her on the back. Ally huffs through her nose and then shrugs their shoulder off, “That concludes our tour. Now make like a Keal and fuck off! I’m going to work.”  
————————————————————  
“That went well.” Lotor sarcastically points out. Shiho rolls her eyes, “Clearly.”

“I hope you do know this,” Lotor says with a frown, “His reasons of hating them are deeper and darker than the ‘ocean’. They did treat him like quiznak back then.”

Shiho sighs, “Yes, but Lance is really not that type of person. He was always neglected-“

“They were his family, Shiho.”

“From what I could tell, that’s not what he thought.”

Lotor sighs as he thinks, “I guess. He never really did consider them to be family to him. He never truly trusted them and that’s how he came to me.”

“You never told me about your friendship.”

“Oh, it was delightful. He was always talking about you, Shiho.”

Shiho blushes, “That’s...”

“He always talked about his past to me. He never came to Hunk, who was supposedly his best friend. He always came to me. And I’d always go to him. That’s how our brotherhood formed. When he did talk about you, though, I thought you’d never accept me.”

Shiho frowns, “I was skeptical at first, but...”

She kisses Lotor’s cheek(platonically). Lotor smiles, “Do you trust me as a brother, Shiho?”

“If Lance trusts you, then I do.” Shiho responds with another smile. Lotor can tell that Lance isn’t the only reason for trusting him.

“I just wish Lance would treat them better. He’s supposed to be a role model for his trainees, too.” Shiho says. Lotor shrugs, “Leave him be. He’s angry right now. They come back and get Sagramour shot in the leg immediately.”

Speak of the devil, Lance walks in, “What are you guys talking about?”

Both parties look away from each other, “We were talking about how you did when you first held a sword.”

“Shiho! I thought we weren’t going to mention that!” Lance exclaims.  
————————————————————  
Sagra silently limps towards the kitchen before Haze catches him, “What are you doing up?”

Sagra groans as he turns to look a Haze, who was glaring back at him, “I thought Ally told you not to get up.”

“She did-“

“Why are you up, then?”

“I can’t just sit here while others are being productive.” Sagra explains, “I’m literally useless right now!”

Haze looks at him with exhasperation. He hates this part of Sagra, “You’re not useless. You just saved Kolivan.”

“Yes, but I’m not even doing anything to support the team right now.”

Haze thinks of something, “If you keep this up, you’re gonna be even more useless.”

Sagra yelps as he stumbles to make his way back to his room, “Noooooo!”

Haze chuckles and picks up Sagra bridle style. Sagra yelps once again, “H-Haze! What are you doing?!”

Haze walks out the kitchen, “Shut up and listen to your co leader.”

It was silent except for the occasional whimpers from Sagra and the slow footsteps of Haze. Sagra startles up again with a yelp when Haze kicks open the door to his room. Haze sets Sagra down on his bed, “Stay here.”

Sagra huffs as Haze leaves. Minutes later, Haze comes back into the room with a jelly sandwich made of goo and a water bag. Sagra blushes as he looks away, “Y-You didn’t have to do that, Haze.”

Haze chuckles as he sets the plate down. He kisses his little brother on the forehead, “Of course I do. It’s my job to keep my little brother safe.”

Sagra just continues to look away from his food until he glances at his food. He couldn’t resist anymore and soon starts to ravage his food.  
————————————————————  
Keith knows he fucked up. It’s true that they neglected him. Even when they did interact with him, it either involved scolding or telling him to go away. And when Lance came to him for help, Keith only pushed him off. Keith was a fucking hypocrite and he knew that. But Keith was also very hurt when he found out Lance was an assassin. Lance kept a huge secret even after he told everyone that they should trust each other. He was a hypocrite too. Everyone is at fault to some degree, Keith concludes. It’s not all his own fault. Maybe if Lance had told them before or maybe if Keith would’ve done something; if Hunk had been there for him. If Pidge treated him like a true big brother, would it be different?

Allura is at fault too. If she just stopped for a moment to take in the fact that they’re not soldiers, maybe Lance would’ve stayed. Keith can tell that she is taking it hard. He knows it’s not her fault though. But he’s not good with words so cheering her up was out of the question. Just then, Shiro comes into the kitchen and Keith shoots out of his chair, “What the hell was that, Shiro?”

“What was what?” 

Keith blinks in shock, “I mean why the hell did you just lash out at Lance!?”

Shiro shrugs, “He needs to understand that he’s a soldier, not a boy. Not anymore. Or more like not ever.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s an assassin. Always has been too. Now that that side has come out, he might not hesitate to hurt us-“

“That’s only if he’s told to, Shiro!”

“-and not to mention that he’ll do it if he’s told to. Just go ask him. He could still do it to us, even if we spent years with him. God, that’s sick, right? We hung out like normal friends and he’d still kill us-“

“We don’t know that, Takashi.”

Shiro freezes, “What? Keith, don’t you-“

“Yeah, I know he’s lied to us. But we’ve lied to him as well. We all have something to hide and you know why? Because we think the ones we love will leave us. Lance is scared. He’s scared of us leaving him even though we treated him like dirt.

“But he’s left us.”

“Because we treated him like shit. He lied to us and we treated him like shit. Don’t you see, Takashi? We’re all at fault somehow. It’s not his fault, or Allura’s or mine. It’s all of ours. Take fucking ownership for it, Takashi.”

Shiro scoffs and rolls his eyes, but looks defeated, “Fine.”

Shiro leaves, bumping his shoulder into Haze’s. Said Galran was confused, “Did you...um...”

Keith looks away, “I’m sorry. I-I’ll just leave...”

Haze takes off his bandanna and his ears perk up, scaring Keith, “It’s fine. Shall I make you something?”

Keith stares at his large ears, “Yeah, sure.”

Haze turns on the oven and places something meat like in the pan. There was a silence that Keith couldn’t describe. Was it awkward? Angry? Wait, was Haze angry?

“Why are you doing this?” Keith shakily asks.

“Because I like Breos.” Haze states simply. Keith nods as he stares at his hands. At least he was getting to know him. 

“It’s also because I have a hunch.” Haze continues. Keith looks at Haze.

“I blame you, don’t get me wrong. In fact, I hate you guys a lot. But Ezuno...he still seems to love you. I know Ezuno very well. He would’ve attacked you. He would’ve even attacked that guy with white hair. He never likes to be insulted. He never put his hands on any of you. So I started to think. What if it was never your fault? After all, the lions are the ones who do the judging. I’m torn, honestly. I want to blame you but my head says it doesn’t logically make any sense.”

Keith doesn’t know what to say. Haze only moves on, “Why were you two arguing?”

Keith sighs, “He’s calling Lance a killer. It’s like he’s trying to turn me against him.”

If Haze was angry, he wasn’t showing it clearly, “Ezuno’s not a killer. Never has been.”

Then, a plate was presented in front of Keith. They were small tiny fishes of some sorts. They were bright and multicolored while their size was a small as a human middle finger. They weren’t hollow as expected; they were re-stuffed with their own organs. Keith starts to pale a little as he picks one up, “That was fast.”

Haze nods and he digs in happily. A smile wasn’t on his face but Keith could see the way his eyes twinkle. It must be good. Keith takes a tiny “fish” from the plate and ate it like a chip. Well, it was like a chip. It was crunchy with a spicy flavor. Keith could barely taste any blood or organs. 

“Wow. These are good; what are these?” Keith asks, covering his mouth. 

“Like I said, they’re called Breos. I always loved these, even as a child.”

Keith stares at his big fluffy ears, “Speaking of you as a child, are you Balmaran?”

Haze nods without looking at him, “Yeah. My mother left me and my brother in a horrible factory. She had to go to war and she couldn’t bare the thought of leaving her children on a ship. So she left us in a place where she thought it was safe but we had to work for someone who was forcefully using alien blood as a means to save soldiers. Not very many aliens donated their blood towards the cause so our boss kidnapped people and drained them of their blood. We were forced to work along side him. I would’ve abandoned him but when he threatened my brother, I stayed. Only a few years ago we were saved by Ezuno.”

“Who was your mother?”

“Oh. Her name was Zethrid.”  
————————————————————  
“I’ve always had my suspicions, Kolivan.” Lance says. Kolivan stands up straight, or at least as straight as he could on his crutch, “Of course. From the looks of it, the real Shiro would’ve never said anything like that. Not to mention the fact that Shiro did absolutely nothing to stop Keith from joining us.”

“The real Shiro would’ve comforted us with his human arm. Not to mention that he was abusing his leadership the last time I saw him.”

Kolivan shuffles uncomfortably, “The problem is telling the team.”

“We need a plan.” 

“Like what?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Lance growls again when he hears the computer beep again, “That damn machine-“

“What happened?”

“It keeps fucking beeping! Someone’s trying to call me but I can tell it’s from a Galra ship.”

“Just open it.”

“Wait, what?”

“Open it. Maybe it’s someone who’ll help us.”

Lance mumbles under his breath as he answers, “Tell me who you are or die-“

It’s Acxa. Oh. 

“You.” Lance snarls. His finger was on the end call button. Acxa looks scared, “Before you hang up, just wait. I can give you information; just allow us on board! Please!”

Lance rolls his eyes as his murmurs again, “Is this a hotel?”

“Sir?”

“Yeah sure. Don’t go anywhere near Lotor.”

“I won’t. Thank you so much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I’m so sorry I’m late(again)! It’s just that I think it’s kind of half assed and I still think it is but then again, it is time for the excitement to die down. I still think it’s bad but I’ll hopefully make it better in the next chapter. Anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	11. Hidden Disease and Secrets

Acxa, Ezor and Zethrid feel piercing eyes as they awaited for permission. 

“Yeesh. They sure know how to make people feel guilty.” Pidge whispers to Keith as Lance’s team glares down at them. Well, all except Haze. Keith pats him on the back, “Sagra doesn’t know, does he?”

“He doesn’t. He doesn’t have ears like mine due to the fact that my mother dated a pure Galran. I wore a bandanna to hide that from him. He’ll kill the person who abandoned him if he knew who it was.”

Keith nods. Zethrid seems ready to punch the harshness out of their eyes; she also seems like she doesn’t know. Ally grits her teeth, “You sons of bitches left him. Go ahead. Punch us. Doesn’t make what you did right.”

If Acxa was defeated, she doesn’t show it. In fact, she doesn’t pay attention to them. Mirna’s trying to work but the hatred she has in her mind is extensive. Voices start to invade the halls. From that accent, it was possibly Lotor and Lance. 

“You’re not ready for this!”

“Lance, let go of me! I have to see them!”

“Why?”

“...”

“Then no! I can’t just let you risk your mental health like this!”

“They stuck with me!”

“And they abandoned you and never came back!”

“I need to know if they’re okay.”

“They’re fine, Lotor! Just let me-“

The voices turn into grunts as they start to struggle. There’s hard thud and a cracking noise. Shiho’s head perks up. 

“Fine Lotor. I won’t stop you.” They can only predict that Lance was the one who walked away. Lotor comes into the room and they can guess who’s right. He instantly freezes when he sees his generals. Shiho stands up instantly, “Lotor?”

Every image flashes through his mind. His father beating him. As they turned more recent, it slowly turns into verbal abuse. Then his father stopped talking to him all together, abandoning him. Lotor remembers the seething hate when Narti betrayed him. He remembers the pain of being literally backstabbed. Even after all that, no one helped him. That’s when he stopped trusting people all together. He stopped trying to make alliances. He had nightmares of his generals turning into his father and torturing him. That dark time would forever remind him that he had no one before Lance came.

“Lotor!” Shiho and Haze are at his side in an instant when he collapses. He’s hyperventilating and his vision was close to being gone. He doesn’t remember being hoisted up on someone’s back. To their surprise, Lance is the one who picks up Lotor, “What the hell did I say, Lotor? You’re so damn stubborn sometimes.”

There was no aggressiveness in his tone. It sounded fond and endearing. But under Lance’s covered eye, they can see a bloodied cast underneath before he leaves to the emergency room. Acxa was worried, “L-Lotor.”

“You motherfuckers did this!” Ally curses and someone goes to stop her, “You’re the ones who scared him for life! If you guys are worse than Voltron is something I can’t fucking answer! You’re just....UHG!” 

Ally storms out of the room, most likely going to help Lotor. Ezor stares down at her shoes, “I...I’m. But can you blame us? He killed Narti.”

“He’s itchy about people betraying him. He did suspect that Narti was being watched.” Haze says. 

“‘Suspected.’” Ezor growls, “Who said she agreed to being watched?”

Mirna can be seen curling into a ball on her chair. Hunk can only comfort her by rubbing her back as he whispers, “Hey, are you okay?”

“Noises.” Mirna whimpers, “They’re getting louder.”

Haze doesn’t note this at all, blinded by anger, “Do you would let someone happily betray you? You would hurt a poor man who’s uncomfortable with trust-“

“No! But Narti was my friend! You’re missing the point! She might’ve not agree to it!”

“Even so, she was still being watched and Lotor knew that. It was a safe precaution! It was to protect you!”

“Well what if we didn’t want to be protected!”

“Then go kill yourselves.” Haze growls, his voice suddenly darker, “Don’t bring anyone else down with you.”

“Stop it!” Hunk yells, “Don’t you see she’s hurting!?”

“What about you?! Aren’t you supposed to take care of others, Mom?”

There’s complete silence. What was once a room of insanity was a room of death. It took a moment for that fact to sink in. 

“Mom?” Sagra says shakily. Keith bites his lip. Mirna’s mental pain stops at that moment as she and Hunk stare in horror. Allura is more horrified than the both of them combined. Shiro’s expression is neutral and Pidge only walks out of the room. Ezor and Acxa stare at their friend like an alien, “What is he talking about, Zethrid?”

The young hybrid pieced it all together, “Namiko? S-Sagra?”

The entire room can only scream the first the that came to mind, “WHO’S NAMIKO?!”  
————————————————————  
“So let me get this straight.” Lance says, “Haze and Sagra are the sons of Zethrid who left them in the factory she never knew about to join a war and Haze’s real name is Namiko? Not to mention that they’re both Balmeran?” 

Shiho nods. Lotor groans, “I guess we know now.” 

“I’d imagine that Sagra’s pissed?” Lance asks. Shiho shrugs, “Actually, he’s pretty silent. I don’t what he’s thinking.”

This concerns Lance. Normally, Sagra would be loud and you’d hear him all away across the ship. At his worst, he’d be violent and throw things and scream up a storm of unintelligible words except for a few curse words you could catch. But he’s quiet. Way too quiet. And a quiet Sagra is a scary Sagra.

“Haze and Zethrid are catching up like no time has passed.” Shiho says, “But she looks like she wants to kill someone.”

Lance sighs, “Let them sort it out on their own. It’s a family issue.”  
————————————————————  
Sagramour glares at his older brother. Haze cowers away from his gaze.

“Who the hell is Namiko, Haze?” Haze would shiver from that cold tone of his. It’s rare to find Sagra angry but never this angry. But it’s to be expected. 

“It’s my birth name.” Haze answers calmly. Sagra bares his teeth, “And her? That’s our mother?”

Haze nods. Sagra seemed to calm down for a moment before he punches the wall, making a dent in it. Haze shakes from fright but doesn’t stop Sagra from doing so. 

“So for all these years,” 

Punch.

“You’ve lied to me,”

Punch.

“Hid your own name,”

Punch.

“And pretended to not know about mom?”

Crack.

“I hate you.”

Haze flinches at that.

“I hate you.”

Sagra’s fist slowly deteriorates in a bloody mess.

“I fucking hate you!”

Haze grabs him before he makes an even deeper hole in the wall(and an even deeper wound on his fists) but Sagra immediately punches his brother in the stomach. Haze immediately coughs up blood and Sagra’s eyes widen, “Huh?”

Haze quickly wipes it away, “It’s nothing, brother-“

Sagra pins him on the wall, “Don’t call me brother! What else aren’t you telling me?!”

Haze stares into Sagra’s eyes. Sadness has settled in behind the anger. Keith is the one who intervenes, separating the two of them,”Sagramour, no.”

Sagra is breathes heavily, “No...he keeps hiding things from me. Hiding things from us! Why, Haze?”

His voice cracks as he says his brother’s name, “Why do you hide these things from me?”

Haze looks away, “I...I wanted to protect you. Keep you away from the pain.”

“So by thinking my mom is dead, you’re protecting me? On top of that, you probably have some disease?” Sagra scoffs, “Yeah right.”

“Sagra, please.”

Sagra doesn’t say anything. Keith swallows, “He’s really trying to protect you. I’m assuming he’s the older one, therefore he should protect you.”

“No.” Sagra mumbles, “I’m younger by only a couple minutes.”

Keith’s eyes widen. 

“It’s complicated.” Haze says. Keith shakes his head, “Still, he is still your brother. Brothers should protect each other.”

Sagra’s shoulders shake and that makes Keith stop talking.

“Keith, you’re right. Brothers should take care of each other.” Sagra’s tear filled eyes bore into Haze’s, “Then why is Haze the one protecting me?!”

Both Haze and Keith were shocked; they stop him from talking though. 

“Brothers should take care of each other. I want to help, Haze! I really do but just let me in, okay?!” Sagra sobs as he tries to wipe away the never ending stream of tears, “I’m just afraid that you’ll end up like Ally; keeping in your problems until it almost kills you. Except this time, it’s not even mental. It’s a real chronic disease that might kill you. I’m worried about you, brother.”

Haze gasp was barely heard when Sagra says this. Keith stares at them confused but knew that it was best to keep quiet. Haze sniffles, “I-I didn’t think I made you feel that way. I’m so sorry.” 

Before Keith could stop any of them, they latch onto each other. Sagra cries into his older brother’s shoulder while Haze only lets a few tears. Keith couldn’t help but give a sad smile.   
————————————————————  
“I’m sorry, but Haze might not even last until next ‘month’; to put it into human time.” Dr Nasya says when they got the results. Sagra picks at his nail beds to their stumps. Lotor and Lance both bite their lips. Ally stares down at her shoes in horror while Mirna stares at Haze in despair. Ally is the one to ask, “How long is that in our terms?”

“30 quintants.”

“I knew this would happen.” Haze states. Ally snaps, “Why the fuck did you not say anything?! You’re gonna fucking die now!”

“Maybe not.” Pidge comes into the room with Keith and a limping Kolivan, “I’ve heard that a Galran’s body system is different than a human. According to your scan, you have a Brittle Spasms which is affecting your brittle. The brittle can sort through your blood and tell the difference between healthy and poor blood and you only have one large one and it’s normally located near the front of your thigh. The thing about Brittle Spasms is that they don’t happen unless you’ve had an open internal wound for a long time. Maybe for about a year...or a deca-phoeb.”

“I was abused a lot back when I was working in the factory.” Haze answers, “It went undetected maybe?”

“Probably.” Pidge answers, “The only way to cure this is by replacing his Brittle with a metal one. On top of that, the skin around it will die fast once the surgery’s done due to his hybrid mix. We can either take the entire leg off or we can keep the leg but burn the metal onto his thigh, which will hurt because we can’t use anesthesia since we still need his nerves to connect or he won’t be able to use his entire leg.”

There’s another silence. Ally comments, “But he’s always hated machines.”

Keith frowns, “And I think I know why. It’s a hard decision, I know.”

Haze is lost. He looks to his leader, Lance. The human musters up a smile, “I know I can find a new co leader but...in all honesty, I’d be lost. You’re like Ally: irreplaceable. All of you guys are. Not even Voltron could fill the void in my heart. I know you hate machines but all of us really need you here.”

Kolivan squeezes Haze’s hand, “I know how painful it’s going to be. In fact, I think it might throw off your ability to walk. But I’m here for you.”

Haze thinks for a moment before he says this, “When Ezuno...Lance helped me and Sagra escape the factory, I promised myself that I would never operate a machine again. But I guess...if it’s for the good of the family? Then I will.”

With that, Haze smiles happily this time. For the first time in a while, the room is filled with ecstasy. Ally wraps an arm around Pidge and messes with her long hair, “You’re gonna help me plan. It looks like you’ve done your research.”

But before the can even start planning, Shiro comes in and the atmosphere changes instantly. Keith glares at him, “What do you want?”

Shiro silently pushes past him and he is in Lance’s face instantly, “Wow...good speech for an assassin. I bet that was fake.”

Lance crosses his arms, “Oh? Why is that?”

“Assassins can’t feel anything.”

“I almost forgot: you don’t know the meaning of team, right my ‘king’?” 

Shiro fumes at this, “What the fuck are you saying? I know what a team and leader means.”

Pidge scoffs, “Yeah right. You run the place like a tyrant.”

Shiro glowers at her, “Pidge, you are not in this.”

Ally’s arm squeezes around her, “The hell she isn’t. You’re messing with my leader and my new friend so shut the fuck up.”

“You shut up! You’re not in this either! This is between me and Lance.” Shiro’s yelling by now. Haze steps in, “No. I can’t stay silent. A leader is not only someone who leads but he cooperates with others. He doesn’t demand them but he works with them. Lance has taught me that therefore you are no leader.”

It’s all against one. Even Nurse Orenda is silently glaring at him. Shiro starts to laugh to a point where it creeps them out, “So I’m guessing Lance taught you that?! That’s hilarious. So the assassins starts to feel stuff. Amazing! It’s almost like he’s a new person! But we can’t forget that he’s an assassin. Lance? Did you tell them about your time prison?”

Lance shuffles as confusion fills the room. 

“I’ll tell them instead: Lance Mcclain ended up killing-“

In an instant, a blur crashes in Shiro and he is held on the ground immediately. Shiho’s hand grips tighter around his throat, like she’s trying to break his neck. Lance is first to try and get her off, followed by Keith.

“Woah, woah, woah, woah! Shiho! This discussion does not require physical assault!” Lance exclaims. Shiho doesn’t move. Her pupils are bright behind her dark eyes with a harsh glare that could knock Shiro unconscious at that moment. Said “man” gags underneath her, “You can’t *wheeze* hide it, Shiho.”

“Don’t...ever...CALL ME THAT!” Shiho yells and her grip hardens even more. Keith and Lance try to pull at her arms but they don’t even budge.

“*Hack* We both know that...*Cough* Lance did to protect you. *Inhale* If you weren’t there *gag* Shay would still be alive.”

Another silence follows again; the only thing filling it is Shiro’s shaky breathing. For a second, Shiho’s hand is loose and Lotor dives in and pins her arms to her side. Shiho struggles and kicks without a word. Shiro coughs and gasps, “Still...deadly I see. You just watched me suffocate.”

“Trust me, we all were.” Pidge says darkly; even Ally is almost scared away. Shiro dusts himself off cockily before smirking at Lance, “As an assassin, it’s vital to keep your emotions in check. Teach your mutt that.”

Shiro struts off, leaving them all in the science lab. Keith is first to ask, “Lance...you killed Shay.”

Lance gulps, “It was to protect Shiho.”

“I know.” Keith says with a softness in voice. Pidge grabs his hand, “I would do it too, Lance.”

Lance stares emptily at his hand, “I’m surprised. You guys aren’t with Shiro?”

“Not anymore.” Keith says with a smile. Lance huffs and picks up Pidge before hugging both of them. What he expected was depression and flashbacks but he is filled with nostalgia and a little bit of home. Another pressure comes from behind. He didn’t think it was possible but ex teammates hugging him gave him another hope. When they let go, Lance finds out that it was Allura who came from behind. She stutters, “I-I just came here to give you all a mission call that has just come in.” 

Lance shakes his head with a chuckle, “Thank you, Allura.” 

As they file out of the room, Keith glances at Ally and catches a few old scars on her arm before he turns away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I’m sorry it’s late!”  
> *Few wednesdays later*
> 
> Anyway guys, I’m so sorry guys! Had to get my motivation up again so I’m sorry if it looks half assed. So anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	12. A Message from the Team

Haze: Hey. What are you working on?

Mirna: The cure? Why?

Ally: Shh shh shh shh! Don’t say that! You’ll spoil something!

Mirna: Oh right. Sorry. 

Ally: Whisper from now on! They can read this!

Sagra: Hey! I finally brought Kolivan and Lotor!

Ally: Sweet! We can get started now?

Haze: Has anyone seen Windfall?

Ally: She’s being lazy...as always.

Sagra: Yeah! When will she update the fanfics already...it’s been so many months for us...that’s how humans measure, right?

Mirna: Maybe she’s just busy?

Kolivan: She’ll do update when she updates.

Lotor: Let’s just update our readers ourselves. I have to get back to worrying-

Ally: The hell did I just say about spoilers?!

Kolivan: Right...

Sagra: Sorry for Windfall not updating our story...

Mirna: Yeah...she’s just been busy, is all.

Ally: Not BUSY. Lazy!

Haze: *Sighs* She’ll update as soon as she can. The next chapter is in production.

Lotor: She’s just having a writer’s block is all...even though she has the plot outline...

Kolivan: For everyone who is still here, thank you for the support.

Ally: We’ll be back soon!

Everyone: Everyone have a great day and ✌️!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for not updating ya’ll and I know I’ve left you on edge but I’m still alive and I swear I’ll update! Anyway, thank you guys for enjoying so far and ✌️!


	13. 100

To say that Lance is acting like a tyrant is the under statement of the year.

“Hunk! Pay attention!”

“Keith, watch your left!”

“Shiro, stop slacking off.”

“Lotor, stop making knot jokes!”

“Allura, don’t be useless and get in there!”

Keith thinks to himself sadly, ‘Is this what it was like when we were bossing him around?’

He hears Lance sigh, “We finally made it to their central after 30 minutes. I should’ve brought my other team.”

Keith hears Lotor snicker while there were more whispers from Lance’s own team: 

“Wow, they really suck at listening to directions. I thought they were supposed to be fucking Voltron.”

“Now they know how he feels.”

Embarrassment paints Keith’s face hotly as he follows his group. 

“Hey, Keith. Do you notice anything?” Pidge asks. Keith does. He nods, “Yeah. My lion isn’t coming and it hasn’t come back for ages.”

“That’s because it only works when you’re in danger. Speaking of which, where is Coran?” Lance says. Allura answers, “He’s forming an alliance with another planet that’s about a hundred lightyears away.”

Keith hears Ally on the other line, “So we’re stuck with them. Lovely. Ow! Hey, Sagra! You know it’s true!”

“Oh come on! We should be cheering them on no matter who they are! Go Voltron!” Sagra cheers from the other line. Ally murmurs, “You were talking shit as well...”

“How’s Haze holding up?” Keith asks. There’s a sharp intake of breath from Ally, “You might wanna turn your coms off when I say so. I’m heating up the metal alloy to plaster that shit onto him. It’ll hurt like a bitch so he might be screaming.”

Keith swallows thickly, “H-Haze?”

“Don’t worry about me.” Haze comforts Keith but the red paladin can hear the small amount of fear in his voice, “I guess this is do or die, huh?”

Pidge speaks up from the other side of the line, “That wasn’t funny.”

Haze hisses, “Well someone had to stop you guys from pitying me. I’ll be fine. You guys need to focus.”

Lance sighs, “I wish I was there.”

“No. Focus, Ezuno. Focus on the mission at hand. What’s the situation, white haired woman?”

Allura has no desire to correct him, “We need to free a lot of prisoners. There’s about less than a hundred.”

“How’s Lotor’s generals?” Lance asks. Ally laughs, “They’re beggin us to let them go and help out Lotor.”

“Don’t let them.” Lotor snarls. 

“Not going to.”

“Good.”

“Are you guys gonna be good?” Ally asks. Lance confirms, “Yeah. Do you need us to turn the coms off?”

Ally makes a noise of confirmation. Everyone turns off their coms one at a time. At the moment, Pidge, Haze, Ally, Sagra and Kolivan were the only ones back on the ship with Lotor’s generals. The ones with Lance(Mirna, Shiho, Shiro, Hunk, Keith, Lotor, and Allura)were on their mission. Lance’s fast fingers raced across the keyboard to access the Galra’s surveillance. Keith looks towards the meekest Galran on the team. Mirna silently waits for Lance to finish.

“Hey, Mirna.” Keith whispers. Mirna’s feelingless eyes look towards Keith.

“I saw scars on Ally’s arm.” Keith says, “Was it from battle?”

Mirna’s eyes fill with sadness, “You could say that. They were more from a mental battle. It was...our fault. We had always ignored her because she was vulgar and loud. We honestly thought she had nothing to contribute to the team. We then realized it was all a front when we found her collapsed on her work room floor. She had cut too deep and I barely saved her. She wasn’t the same for a while until Ezuno came. I don’t know what happened but she slowly came back to us. They did talk for a while one day and I never knew what they talked about. It may not look like it but I really do care about her.”

With a silent ‘Oh’, Keith waits silently again, his mind was filled with the thoughts of Lance and Ally. What did Lance do? How did he save her? He wants answers. Hunk whispers from the side, “Hey, I heard what happened. What do you think Lance did?”

Keith shrugs, “Not sure. I’m getting answers soon, though.”

“Dammit!” Lance growls, pounding the keyboard, “They’ve already locked us out. It’s probably because they’ve been expecting us.”

He then angrily commands his current team, “Search the each of the cells! Do it quick!”

The once silent Shiro begins to argue with him, “Who are you to demand us to do your dirty work? As far as I see it, YOU left US! You betrayed us!”

If Lance was hurt by that, he didn’t show it as he glared back at Shiro, “Search the cells, I said. If you have a problem, get out.”

Lotor knows something will happen if he doesn’t do anything. He points out, “We might haven’t much time left, Ezuno.

Lance’s cold glare continues until it relents as his eyes gaze across the rest of his team, “Everyone else...let’s move out.”

He and Lotor push pass Shiro. Everyone else but Keith follows Lance as he makes his way to the door. Shiro shouts, “How pathetic! You can’t even stand up to me! You know I’m right, you worthless Paladin!”

Keith thought Shiho had disappeared. But the loud smack that emanates across the room makes it clear that she didn’t. 

“He can take so much. He can be called worthless or whatever name you call him.” She says coldly, “But you don’t ever call him a Paladin. He is one of us, not one of you. 

Lotor sneers from the side, “Get it together, ‘Paladin’.”

Shiro holds his face and glares at the small woman. Lance scoffs, “Come on, Shiho. He’s not worth our time.”

Mirna and Lotor nod in agreement in the background. This time, Keith does follow, leaving Shiro behind. He’s disappointed but not surprised by Shiro’s outburst. But before he was missing a second time, the black Paladin never acted like that. Allura whispers as she checks a cell, “Shiro’s actions are way out of line. What is he thinking?”

“Does he really hate Lance that much? I’m kinda happy that he’s here now.” Hunk adds. Keith sighs, “I don’t know why he’s acting like this. He’s never done this before. I think the stresses of war are weighing him down.”

“Well he needs to suck it up.” Lotor complains, looking into another cell, “Found one!”

He easily opens the door by stabbing the small control panel next to the door.

“Mr...Holt?” Hunk looks shocked. Keith is as well. A shaggy looking man stumbles through as Lotor pulls his arm. Keith turns around and sees Mirna, Shiho and Lance’s faces. They are all filled with hatred towards Mr Holt. Lance snarls, “We’re rescuing you because we have to. As far as I see, you don’t deserve this.”

Mr Holt spits out as well, “Don’t be a hypocrite.”

Keith has an inkling feeling about the subject but decides not to bring it up in front of everyone. Ignoring Mr Holt, the group searches each cell with one prisoner at Allura’s side. A couple minutes later, Keith says, “That’s weird. I thought they expected us?”

Even Lance looks concerned, “Yeah. These doors should be harder to open. Stay sharp, guys.”

“I thought Allura said there would be at least a hundred....” Lotor murmurs. Allura nods, “I did but what’s...going on? This is ten times less than a hundred.”

They manage to find another. She is a Balmeran child. When Lance opens the door, she runs straight into the assassin’s arms and sobs. This goes on for a couple more minutes until she sniffles and asks, “Sh-Shay? Where is she? I was abducted with her!”

Lance suddenly looks sad. Hunk stares at him, “Lance?”

Keith’s breath hitches. He knows what happened. Hunk is going to be devastated if he finds out. 

“I’m sure she’s alive and kicking. We might find her here.” Lance says with a reassuring smile, “Allura, look after this child.”

Keith manages to catch up with Shiho, “So I talked with Mirna.”

“Oh?” Shiho says with no interest in the topic.

“It was about Ally’s scars.”

“She got them from battle.”

“I know they’re self inflicted; stop hiding it.”

Shiho sighs and then jumps down from looking into the cell door, “Yeah. So what of it? Are you going to judge her for it?”

“What? No, I’m not but...” Keith takes a deep breath, “I heard she turned back to normal after Lance talked to her. I’m wondering what he said.”

“Why don’t you ask the man himself?” 

“With all due respect, he’s not the same. I’m scared too ask Lance since I’m worried he might snap or something. I mean, it’s not like he isn’t going to from all the stress he’s getting: Shiro’s acting like an ass, Kolivan is suffering, Sagra is suffering and Haze is going through so much pain as we speak.”

Shiho frowns at that, “He can take a lot more if he used to deal with you guys.”

Keith visibly winces from that statement. Shiho explains, “Yeah, I heard what he said. I was in the same room too. He knew Ally was putting on an act for them and he related to it. He knew about the pain of hiding that pain. Lance knew about how his own team, his own family, going against him in so many ways. But he had never touched a blade unless it was to harm or kill someone else. So he did his best to coax her back out of her shell. If Lance wasn’t here, you wouldn’t see her so bold and brash. Now she could smile knowing that it’s real. She fights for her team. And they fight for her as well. They try their best to keep her from self harming again.” 

“He...really said that?” Keith says, looking hurt. Shiho sighs again, “To be honest, I hate you guys because of what you did to him. You degraded him and outcasted him like he was just a weirdo.” 

Keith looks away in shame but Shiho continues with a different point, “But I can’t blame you guys. With people and their technology, nobody even knows how to communicate face to face, let alone see past a person’s mask. Now that I think about, I would’ve done the same if I didn’t truly know Lance.”

Keith looks into her red eyes, “So what?”

“So you have my sympathies.”

Keith doesn’t know what she means by that but just as he’s about to ask, Lance points at them, “Hey! Less chit chat and more searching. I’m not dealing with any more anchors on this mission.”

Shiho is already off and looking into another cell. Keith sighs as he stares at Lance. He looks so different opposed to old Lance. The red-blue paladin was friendly, funny and was such a goofball but they still loved him. Now the assassin is a heavy opposite. He is cold, serious and straightforward. Keith knows he’d never get used to it. Lance scolds him again, “Keith! You’re a part of this mission, correct? Then search these remaining cells! Or you’re more than happy to join the white haired cunt that’s back in the central room.”

He swears he hears Lotor huff out a laugh at that. Keith looks away and continues his search. Not even a minute later, they arrive at the end of the corridor. Lotor is confused along with the rest of the group, “There’s no one else?”

Lance is suspicious, “I was expecting an attack but it’s silent. No sentries or Galrans anywhere....well, the exception of three here.”

Keith hears an amused hum from Shiho. Allura asks, “What if they ran off?”

“They wouldn’t.” Lotor points out, “That would mean execution for them.”

“What if they’re just transporting the prisoners?” Hunk suggests. The group looks back to Lotor. He looks stunned, “Well...that might not be too far off then.”

Lance groans, “Seriously? Did they change their transport schedule?”

Mirna silently argues, “They didn’t. They probably knew we were coming so they moved their prisoners. They probably only knew we were coming when we attacked their miners so they didn’t have long. They left out two prisoners in a haste.”

“Did they leave?” Keith asks. 

“ATTENTION ALL UNITS!” A robotic voice echoes through the purple halls, “THERE IS T-MINUS 5 MINUTES LEFT UNTIL LIFT OFF.”

Shiho huffs, “Now we have our answer.”

“Let’s go.” Lotor says as the group runs fast down the hallway. They turn left and Shiho quickly jams her knife into the controls. The door flies open. Lance gives Allura a quick command, “Take these prisoners and get them back onto the ship.”

Allura nods and kindly looks between the crying Balmeran girl and Mr Holt, “Come on. Let’s get you out of this prison, shall we?” 

By the time Keith went inside, it’s already a war zone created by the assassins. Bullets flew pass their bodies. Lance is having a blast taking off the sentries’ heads with his sniper skills. Keith focuses on fighting off the other Galran guards with his sword. From the corner of Keith’s eye, he sees a guard give some kind of signal. To everyone’s horror, the ships start to take off. The battle was going to end the moment it started. 

“No!” Lotor yells as he went to the dock controls. Their luck starts to get worse when someone shuts the lights down only seconds after Lotor reaches the controls. Lotor doesn’t manage to close the large doors in time and the ships merrily left with over 100 prisoners. The group is frozen in the shadows of the docks, watching as the ships go farther and farther and they’re just small specks in the distance. Keith doesn’t know what to do afterwards and from the sound of it, nobody else does either. Lotor grunts, “No...dammit!”

But the staring contest with the outside stop when they hear fighting in the empty room. Keith looks through the dark, “Lotor?!”

“AAAARRRRRGGH!” Lotor yelps as there was the sound of a body slamming on the floor. A gruesome sound of a sword stabbing through a body was heard. Lance whimpers as he runs to find his best friend, “Oh my god...Lotor?”

There are footsteps and Keith can only make out the figure’s body for a second when the door opens but the figure is gone in an instant. The lights turn back on and everyone is greeted with a shocking yet horrifying sight. 

“Ezor?” Lotor asks with tears in his eyes. Sure enough, the pink alien is on the floor, coughing up blood with a giant metal stabbed into her stomach. Her close comrades are by her side in an instant, “Ezor?!”

“What the hell...” Lance murmurs. The group run past their dazed leader and to Ezor. They don’t get too close as they allow space for Lotor and his old generals. The ex Galran prince sits by her side as well, “Why, Ezor? Why did you-“

“I...couldn’t just let you die, sir.” Ezor’s voice quivers, “We wanted to protect you until the end but...”

She coughs up more blood and the laughs humorlessly, “I guess this IS the end, huh?”

Lotor’s tears start to fall, “No...don’t you dare say that! We have doctors back at home! You’ll be okay again! I just need to help you up!”

But when Lotor tries to lift her, she starts to moan and then those sounds turn into shrieks of pain. He is forced to let her go when he hears the sounds. Lotor starts to sob. The other generals are frozen, not knowing what to do as they watch their old friend die. Lotor snaps, “Don’t just sit there! Help me!”

Acxa and Zethrid’s posture shoot up as they move around Ezor’s body to help her up. Despite Ezor’s grunts of pain, they manage to carry her body. They all slowly make their way to the exit until Ezor’s screams return. But it’s cut off short with a spurt of blood. Her green intestines start to seep from the side and onto Acxa’s stomach. She gasps, “Oh no...”

“Stop! Stop! It hurts!” Ezor wails. Lotor cries, “I can’t just leave you.” But he couldn’t handle her cries so he slowly sets her down. The other generals got the message and they set her down as well. The rest of the group can do nothing but watch; the best they can do was be there by, not only Lotor’s, but by Ezor’s side to give her a gentle passing. Even if they had tried to help, it would only speed up her blood loss process. The wound is too great and she wouldn’t make it to the ship in time. Keith examines the weapon. It looks like a large piece of metal. It‘s skinny but long but it’s unfortunately not long enough to slice Ezor in half and end her suffering. 

Lotor cries into her chest as Acxa sobs into an emotionless Zethrid. 

“I shouldn’t die.” Ezor complains, “That’s just...against the command, right sir?” 

Lotor nods, “No...you’re not...allowed to...”

“But I want to...it’s too painful, sir. Please end it.” 

A short silence goes by until Lotor sits up straight, gripping the metal with a determined face, “I’ll do this...just for you, Ezor.”

Ezor’s tear filled eyes look into Lotor’s depressing yellow ones, “I’m sorry...that I disobeyed my command, sir.”

Lotor sniffles but stares back into hers as well. He plunges the metal deeper, killing her for good. Green spills on the floor below, her guts coming to the outside. But her face is peaceful, almost happy. 

“Thank...you.......” Ezor rasps out her final words and then her face is stone cold. Her eyes are open but they have a peaceful look in them while her mouth is open as a soft frown. Lotor finally breaks down. Lance sits down on his knees behind him and Lotor immediately cries into his chest. It‘s just loud and ugly sobbing but Lotor couldn’t even think. His general...no, his friend, his sister has just died. Acxa silently weeps for her friend. If only she valued Ezor more. If only she spent more time with Ezor. If only she told Ezor that she loved her before she died. 

Zethrid’s mind is blank. She stares at the dead body of her comrade. Ezor would always brag about how she’s go out: From a huge explosion, from partying too much, she even mentioned that she’d choke to death doing something kinky. Then Zethrid would scoff and say that she would just cause a bloody mess if she died since she can’t even clean her own room. To that, Ezor would roll her eyes and blow raspberries towards the Balmeran. It’s painful how right Zethrid was. 

Mirna looks away while Hunk looked like he‘s about to cry but also appears very sick. Keith stares at the body, thinking over today’s events. What had they done wrong? 

“We should find the killer who did this.” Shiho says, her eyes visibly dark with rage, “I’ve just gotta teach them a few things about dying as well.”

“Shiho, we need to focus-“ Lance starts to say until Lotor growls, “No...I need them dead. Whoever did this...they need to die! They need to pay for what happened to her!”

Lance nods, “Fine...if that’s okay with you, but it’s gonna be hard.”

“I don’t care.” Lotor says simply. It is a dark day for both the Assassins of Marmora and Voltron. They just sentenced to end the life of a hundred prisoners and they just lost one of the most important people to Lotor and the generals. The holes in their hearts felt heavier than before.   
———————————————————  
They manage to bring Ezor’s remains back to the ship. Lotor couldn’t bare to see Ezor in that state so Shiho was happy to burn her remains with a lighter she kept. It wasn’t easy; they had to stay for an hour until she was nothing but ashes, a former of her once happier self. Until they can find a proper carrier, Lotor keeps her ashes in an empty gun tank that the Galran’s used. 

“Hey! You’re back! How did you all do?” Pidge asks hastily until she saw their somber faces, “Guys? The mission did go well, right?” 

It isn’t weird for Pidge to think that. She was happily reunited with her father after so many years, not to mention they found a Balmeran child. Hunk looks towards Pidge with an empty look, “We...we didn’t...”

“Let me tell them, Hunk.” Lance says with a reassuring smile. Ally and Sagra stop talking to each other and look to their leader. Allura looks up from her and Kolivan’s conversation as well. Kolivan does the same. Shiro stands next to the edge of the control panel, arms crossed.

“Where’s Haze?” Lance asks. Allura sayd, “Resting. They managed to...burn it on his leg.”

“Nurse Orenda and Dr Nasya?”

“Tending go the prisoners.”

Lance sighs and then explains, “We couldn’t get them in time. Someone cut off the lights and the ships left. We...lost someone else too. Her name was Ezor. She was stabbed by someone. I don’t know who.”

Allura looks shocked but swallows thickly, “She was...such a great warrior.”

Ally looks to the floor, “Dammit...if only...we guarded their cell better...”

Sagra pats her on the shoulder, “Ally, it’s not our fault. It’s that damn murderer’s fault.”

Pidge plops herself down onto a chair, “I don’t believe....who?”

“It’s obviously Lance’s fault.” Shiro sharply cuts in, “I said he wasn’t good enough to be a leader and yet you all followed him like the sheep you are.”

Pidge is immediately on her feet again, “We don’t need your input, asshole!” 

“It was my fault. I should take ownership.” Lance says. Everyone looks surprised. 

“What?” Lotor stares, “No, you don’t have to...”

“I should’ve been more careful with my planning.” Lance explains, “And that ill preparedness caused another....multiple lives to be taken. So for that, I’m sorry.”

Keith is stuck in a stupor until he hears a snapping sound. He looks to the sound. Lance’s hand is behind his back, snapping and pointing to the right. Keith silently wanders to the right of the room. As he did, realizes Lance’s plan. Everyone but the people who went on the mission didn’t have their weapons and right now, not very many people had blasters with them. They have to corner Shiro. Keith also sees that Lotor is moving to the left along the wall. Shiho follows Keith silently and hands him her blaster. Keith raises an eyebrow.

“The moment I have the gun aimed towards him, I might just shoot the fucker in the head.” Shiho explains. Keith nods and takes the blaster. Lotor is very close to Shiro as he continues to make his way to the left side of the room. Amazingly, Shiro moves to the center of the room to continue with the point he is making, “Do you finally acknowledge it? Are you going to finally give up your position? I’m a better leader anyway.”

“But it’s also your fault.” Lance’s demeanor changes and he’s suddenly pointing a weapon at the black Paladin. In a split second, Keith takes out the blaster and aims it at Shiro and from the looks of it, Lotor took out his blaster too. Keith looks to his left and sees that Allura has a human hand held gun. 

“You’ve always treated me like crap with the rest of Voltron...but you’ve never treated your own teammates like this. So who the hell are you?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I’m late yet again! I’ve just been very busy but here it is! There might be another pause when the end of this book comes because I’ll need to fix the formatting in my first chapters(clearly). Anyway, hoped you demons enjoyed and ✌️!


	14. The Takashi Shirogane That Never Smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So is it true?” 
> 
> “Is what true?”
> 
> “Did you kill her?”

Shiro scoffs, “I should’ve known the runt of the litter would get it.”

“Shiro? Is this true?” Keith asks. Shiro rolls his yellow eyes, “God, you’re so stupid, Keith. It takes you this long to finally know I’m not him? You’re stupider than the previous blue paladin and that’s saying something. The real Shiro should’ve left you like your parents.”

“Shut up!” Lance yells. Keith looks towards the assassin, surprised by his outburst. Lance continues, “Don’t you dare shit talk Keith. Or the others for that matter. Paladin or not, everyone on this ship is my family. With the exception of your dumbass, of course. Now where’s Shiro?”

Shiro doesn’t answer the question, “Wow, such nice words coming from an assassin.” He then turns the paladins that are scattered across the room, “Why are you siding with him? He left us. Not to mention he’s an assassin. Assassins don’t have feelings. He’ll kill you all once he kills me. He’s lied to us. You should be scared of him.”

“You’re not Shiro.” Allura states, “He’s still our Lance, but you’re not our Shiro.”

“After all we’ve been through, Lura. You saved my life and for what? To shoot me down later?”

“Don’t ever call me that again.” Allura hisses. Shiro looks back over to Lance, “You’re breaking up the team.”

“Where’s Shiro?” Lance asks again, leaving no room for negotiation. 

“Fine...I’m Shiro.”

“No you’re not.”

“Pidgeon! Hunk!” Shiro then turns to the special duo, “I’m still the same Shiro you’ve always known.”

“Fuck off. Where’s Shiro?” Pidge glares while Hunk just stares at him with betrayal. Shiro fakes a frown, “Even you?”

“You have five seconds.” Lance says. Keith stares at the man he called Shiro as Lance counts down. This person was impersonating Shiro for so god knows how long. It could’ve been years and Keith didn’t even see it until now. Where was their Shiro?

“0.” There’s that familiar bang next to Keith and that’s when all hell breaks loose. Shiro dives for Shiho, who shoves her hand into his face and his entire body slams into the floor, just like how she did to Keith years ago. This time, the back of the imposter’s head cracks. The clone yelps in pain. Shiho is stepping on his throat, barely above the force to kill him. Any harder and his windpipe would shatter and his throat would be flat.

“Wait, don’t!” Keith exclaims for some reason. But Shiho doesn’t listen. Her face is dark and concentrated as she watches the faker choke. The clone’s leg then shoots up and kicks her in the kidneys. Shiho stumbles off of him and groans as she messages her lower bag. 

“How weak.” The clone says before bolting out of the room. Lance snarls, “Bastard! The rest of you! Go get that stupid clone off of my ship!”

Lance quickly goes to Shiho’s side. Keith stares for a moment as Lance questions Shiho’s welfare. Keith is almost jealous. He wishes that they treated Lance better. None of this would’ve happen. Lance wouldn’t have change so much. Fuck, he was just a boy! Keith shakes himself out of his thoughts before running into the hallway. The two teams scatter all over the ship.

Keith finds himself with Sagra and Pidge. 

“Where’d he go?” Sagra asks anxiously. Pidge huffs, “Great.”

Keith swallows thickly. A chill runs down his spine as he feels someone watching them. 

“Uh, guys, I thi-“

Keith is too late. Suddenly, heavy weight drops onto his back. His shout is cut off when his jaw hits the floor. Shouts and guns blasting sound distant to him as his eyes struggle to focus. Pidge is running off as the clone turns down the hallway. Someone flips Keith over. Keith groans in pain, “L-Lance? Is that you?”

“‘Lance?’ If you’re talking about Ezuno, I’m not him!” Keith is confused as to why Lance sounds like Sagra. “Lance” waves a hand in front of his face, “Oh god. Your eyes are not focused. How many fingers?”

“Lance” holds up four fingers in front of Keith’s face. Keith grunts, “Four?”

“It’s worse than I thought.” The person murmurs, “I’m gonna have to take you...”

Keith doesn’t hear the end of the sentence as his vision fades.  
———————————————————  
Pidge is enraged! How dare that fucker?! She’s getting tired though. Instead of continuing, she throws her bayard and it shocks the clone. The clone lets out a scream before it collapses, steam emanating from the body. Pidge cheers, “Hahahaha! Let’s see you try and fuck with us!”

Confidently, she strides up to the unconscious clone, “It was really a ‘shocking’ demise, huh bitch?”

But just as her foot stops at the clone’s arm, it wakes up and digs her bayard into her leg. Pidge lets out a screech as hot pain shoots through her veins. She collapses on her side, vision fading fast, and watches powerlessly as the clone runs away like a coward. 

“-idge...Pidge!” 

Pidge wakes up with a gasp. Lance and Shiho are in her face, both of their own faces filled with concern. 

“Are you okay?” Shiho asks. Pidge shakes her head to regain her focus, “I’m fine. The bastard shocked me with my bayard.”

“Wait, hold on,” Lance holds up his middle finger, “How many fingers?”

Pidge hisses at him, “Fuck you.”

Shiho hits Lance’s chest lightly as the man laughs. Even Pidge couldn’t help but smile. Then she turns serious, “But Keith’s not okay. He took a pretty hard hit. I think Sagra took him to Nasya and Orenda.”

Shiho places a hand on her shoulder, “That’s fine. You need to go too.”

Pidge’s eyes widen, “What?! But I’m okay!”

“Go.”

“But I’m fine! I swear!”

“Go.”

“And the clone-“

“GO!” Shiho says with a sharp glare. Pidge withers under her glare, but mutters, “Okay, fine.”

“Be safe.” Lance comments. Pidge shrugs as she stands up, “I’ll be fine. I’ll just throw my bayard at it.”

Shiho and Lance watch Pidge leaves. Just to be safe, of course.

“Okay, we have to get this dick off my ship.” Lance says with gritted teeth. Shiho sighs, “No need to tell me twice.”

A shout comes from the end of the hall. 

“Back away from my bloody friends!”

“Is that...?” Shiho questions. 

“Allura!” Lance is already running.  
———————————————————  
Lotor swears he had better moments. How was he supposed to know clones had acidic blood? 

“Hey. You’re still here, right?” Hunk asks anxiously. A groan from Lotor confirms it, but it doesn’t make Hunk any less anxious. 

“Good, good...Lance!” 

“I’m here, Hunk!” Lance pants, “Where’s Ally and Allura? What happened to Lotor?!”

“They both have Shiro, er, the clone at gun point! Lotor’s in so much pain! I don’t know how long Allura and Ally can hold the clone off at gun point.”

“Shiho, help Hunk. I’m gonna go handcuff that annoyance.”

Shiho nods before taking Lotor off of Hunk’s back and into her arms as if he was light weight and runs off with Lotor. Hunk stares in amazement, “I guess...she has that covered.”

Lance sighs, “I swear to god that woman takes orders in different ways. Anyway, come on.”

Sure enough, when they got there, the clone is on his knees and his head is down with Allura and Ally holding guns towards him.

“Nice jobs, ladies.” Lance nods to them both. Ally giggles cutely.

“He told us the location of Shiro for some reason.” Allura says. Lance asks, “So easily?”

“Yes! It was barely a second after we held him at gun point when he told us.”

Lance shrugs, “Well, I guess we have no need for him.” Lance narrows his eyes at the clone, “Anyway last words, Kuron?”

The clone doesn’t look up. But then he looks towards Hunk. His yellow eyes seem to shine with delight, “Do you believe Lance is your best friend?”

Hunk exclaims, “O-Of course he’s my friend!”

“You’d never leave him?”

“I’d never leave him!” 

Lance looks between Hunk and the clone in confusion before he realizes what‘s up, “Wait-“

“Even if he killed Shay?”

A gunshot rings out and the clone slumps over dead before Hunk could question him. Everyone gapes towards the shooter. Ally sneers, “Oops. My hand slipped. My hands get really shaky when assholes are around.”

Lance tries to stay in character as he walks off from the scene, “Good. Now lets go check on the others.”

The women nod before they follow. But it’s only Hunk who doesn’t follow. Lance knows what’s coming. Lance knew Hunk was going to find out somehow. 

“Hunk?” Lance calls out with a shaky breath, “That’s an order.”

Hunk’s fists tighten, “What did he mean by that?”

“What did who mean by what?”

“Don’t play fucking dumb!” Hunk snaps. Ally whimpers as Allura takes a step back. 

“I’ll just...leave you two to sort it out. Come on, Ally.” Allura says before walking off. Ally stares at her leader with concern before she walks off as well, leaving the two best friends on their own.

“Hunk-“

“What did he mean by that, Lance? You know who I’m talking about, right?”

Lance tries to say something before he nods. 

“So is it true?” Hunk asks, still not looking at his friend. 

“Is what true?”

“Did you kill her?”

Lance bites his lip nervously before he says, “I...can’t tell you now. I’ll need the rest of the team.”

Hunk was about to lash out before he thought about something. He growls, “Fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It’s ya fam, uh, depressed procrastinator :/. Anyway, I’m looking for editors and having one would really make life easier! So if you’re interested, comment down below or message me over tumblr
> 
> Tumblr: realwindfalltreason
> 
> Anyway, sorry I’m late(again), hoped you guys enjoyed and ✌️!


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